Shedding a Light
by The-Lesser-of-two-Goods
Summary: The Organization is back, revived by Hades, and they've unleashed a new creature, stronger than a Nobody and a Heartless combined. But what is it and what are they after? Can Sora&co and a new generation of wielders stop them? SoxKai OCxOCxRi NaxRo OCxOC
1. Lifeline

CHAPTER ONE:

_Lifeline_

**This fanfiction is, in fact, the sequel to The Forgotten Heart, another fanfiction of mine**

**BUT, you don't have to read The Forgotten Heart to understand this one, because it's an entirely different storyline, it just keeps a lot of the OCs. What you should know is:**

**-Naminé has faded into the darkness and so has another important OC character, Sienna.**

**-Thomas, the antagonist of the first fanfiction, had control over Cora, another OC in this plotline. Cora is the eighth Princess of Heart with the unique ability to create hearts and open any lock on her own, sort of like a keyblade. Thomas will, too, be the antagonist in this story.**

**-In my last fanfiction, I mentioned that Hades had revived Organization XIII. Roxas, after traveling with the group to lock up Kingdom Hearts again, and Axel had left the Organization to help Roxas in their last journey.**

**This fanfiction takes place one year after the events in The Forgotten Heart. Even though you don't have to read The Forgotten Heart, I highly recommend it.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Twilight Town: The Clock Tower**

Twilight Town was beautiful, as always.

The few lights left on at the dark night were like little candles lit in a blackened room, dotting the horizon with a breathtaking beauty. Cora was standing, but she might as well have fallen on her knees. She went back to that clock tower every day with Hayner, Pence, Olette and her best friend, Umeko, but somehow it's not the same when she was with others. When she was alone, she could appreciate it.

She could appreciate everything that she had once left behind.

Cora gazed upon all that she could see of her hometown up to the horizon as she stood on the top of the Clock Tower. She could hear the clock slowly ticking behind her, counting down the moments. Ten minutes to midnight. It was almost exactly a year since Axel's Heartless, Thomas had met her in this very spot.

He offered her control over her own heart. He offered her training and experience. Most of all, he offered her the strength to beat the Heartless that had for so long haunted her, hunting her and her unique abilities to create hearts, and her own one, pure and vulnerable, moreso than any of the first seven Princesses of Hearts.

She shook her head harshly, her medium length brown hair whipping in her face. She was strong, now. She survived the darkness, she was saved by her best friend Umeko, and her companions- Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Naminé, Axel and Sienna. Of course, the two girls that Roxas had cared about the most, Naminé and Sienna had both lost themselves to the darkness. Naminé was gone forever, but...

Cora could _taste_ it. Sienna had lost her heart, true, her keyblade, Origins of Nothing had predicted this long beforehand. But there was something else about her, something different. She had split into two somewhere along the line, a Nobody and a Heartless.

But that wasn't all.

Sienna had the uncanny ability to pull Nobodies out of people, hence freeing Roxas and Naminé from their fleshy prisons, and now Roxas could go in and out without a problem. But as a Nobody, there was something different about her. She could still pull another being out of someone, but it wasn't Nobodies anymore.

What _was_ it?

Cora had studied the anatomy of Nobodies and Heartless for the last three years. Never could she guess that there was _another_ being. Again, she shook it off; she couldn't rely on the instincts that her darkless heart had given her. They were often correct, but there was only one thing on this earth that was _always_ right, if calculated correctly.

_Science_.

Five, four, three, two, one. The first three minutes were over.

Cora sighed, her eyes not taken off of the town in front of her. Many of the lights had blinked out. It had been a year since Cora first began to lose herself to the darkness. "Are you really saved, Cora?" she asked herself after a long sigh.

A voice that Cora was upset to hear, but mostly expectant of, answered her. "You tell me."

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**Destiny Islands: The Home Island, The High School**

"Sora!" Kairi called, rushing out of the door to the highschool. "Riku!" At Destiny Islands, it was almost half past three in the afternoon, the last day of school finally out.

The two boys were sitting on the steps of the school, a flood of other students rushing out. Excited squeals of freshmen-turning-sophomores mostly lit up the outsides, but it was also accompanied with the crying of seniors and the groaning of sophomores turning juniors. Sora and Riku, however, were just sitting on the steps, talking about life.

"Kairi," Sora responded, his head snapping back to see his girlfriend. She happily glanced down at him and bent down to kiss him on the cheek, "You're in a good mood," Sora laughed, and Riku raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, where's my kiss?" Riku asked as he and Sora stood up so they could all make their way to the play island.

"On your ass, Riku," Sora laughed, earning a punch in the shoulder from Riku.

Sora and Riku had been interrupted during an important conversation, but it was probably one that Riku didn't plan to continue. Sora had told Riku how much he had changed since the second time he fell into the darkness, working as a spy for Thomas and Cora. He had given them information about their new friend, Sienna, who had lost her heart after their journey had ended the last year. He did this because Thomas had promised the rest of his friends and his world's safety.

He tried to end this, of course, but Thomas had Riku under his control. He had become harsh during those days, almost violent, and not very tolerable. Since they returned to Destiny Islands after stopping Thomas from using Cora to open Kingdom Hearts back up, he had definitely mellowed out.

But Sienna had been the one to pull Riku _out_ of the darkness.

Knowing how he betrayed his only way to the light was not his favorite conversation, so he was thankful that Kairi had changed the subject. "I'm just so happy that school's out for the summer," she paused, "but, aren't you guys worried?" Kairi asked in a slightly lowered voice, her features beginning to frown.

"What do you mean, Kairi?" asked Sora, who probably wasn't physically able to frown, not with his own fingers laced in Kairi's. He had his beautiful girlfriend to his right and his best friend to his left, everything that year had gone so _right_. How could he be worried?

"Thomas," Kairi said lower, "after Sienna injured him. He said it was 'time for plan B'. Don't you guys worry that he's out there plotting?" She looked over past Sora to Riku, who did have his chin in his hand, thinking.

"I haven't noticed anything," Riku said truthfully, "if I had to guess, it'll have something to do with Organization XIII. Remember Hades revived them back when he was under Thomas's command?" Riku asked.

"Well, they can't finish Organization XIII without Roxas," Sora said, putting his free fist to his chest. Like he could every now and then, something that often freaked him out, he could hear Roxas's voice in his _heart_.

_Or Axel_, Roxas reminded him. "Or Axel," Sora finished.

"He hasn't visited in a couple of weeks," Kairi remarked dryly, looking down at her own feet. "I wonder if he's alright."

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**Twilight Town: Umeko's House**

Umeko was _sure_ she saw it. She wasn't blind.

She had woken up seven minutes to the middle of the night to get a drink of water, and looked out her window. A suspicious character in a long, black coat had been walking the streets, as if he was trying to memorize the patterns on the buildings or something of the like. He stopped in front of Umeko's house and created a portal with his bare hand, and walked through it.

That could only mean one thing. A Nobody. And not just any Nobody, a Nobody from Organization XIII. Umeko wasn't an idiot; she had heard Roxas and Axel's stories in their letters of Organization XIII, and she knew that Hades revived them from the darkness the year before. She was practically _waiting_ for them to do something suspicious.

She tied her dirty blond hair back in a haphazard ponytail and threw on a pair of jeans and a spaghetti strap shirt, the first things she could find. She had to move quickly, she acknowledged this. Still, as she sneaked out of the door to her house, she looked up at the clock tower. Cora was probably there.

"Should I tell her?" Umeko whispered to herself.

No, of course not. She wouldn't tell Cora; Cora had been through too much crap the last time she had followed somebody in a coat. Granted, that one was white, but besides that, it was an exact replica of the Organization XIII coats. Besides, Umeko always preferred to work alone. She would find the root of the problem and destroy it at its core.

"Where are you going?" a voice surprised Umeko, or 'scared the shit out of' would substitute that just fine. Umeko spun around only to find her short-time companion but year-long friend, Axel standing in front of her, looking worried.

"Nowhere," she said lamely. She knew where she was going; the Gummi Ship.

"Tell the truth," Axel commanded her. Umeko's forest green eyes flickered up to Axel's lime ones, and she sighed. She couldn't lie to Axel, that was too difficult. He could read people like pathetically written books.

"I found a member of Organization XIII walking through here," she stated, "he went through a portal, and I think he might have gone to The World that Never Was. You know, to the Castle that Never Was. I wanted to go there to find out what's going on."

Axel paused, as if trying to contemplate all of this. "You're not going alone," he said, "I thought maybe you would have figured that out the last time you tried to go on a huge mission on your own." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Let me come with you."

Umeko's eyes opened widely, but she nodded her head. At least that way, she wouldn't have to pull Cora into the action.

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**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Proof of Existence**

_The Bringer of Light_.

Such a beautiful title for the new thirteenth member of the Organization. A title could only be so beautiful because it has no meaning. The Bringer of Light? The only thing that Nix ever brought to the Organization of her year of residing there was confusion and annoyance. She was always informed of the missions, but never sent on one of them. She was always told she had a past, but nobody ever told her who she was in that past. She was always told that she had a destiny, but she had never gotten the chance to fulfill it.

Anixens. The Bringer of Light.

Nothing made sense. At least the cold tile of where she sat on the floor of Proof of Existence was calming, not like it made any difference to her. She knew that she had no emotions, just the ones she remembered from when she was a Somebody, whenever and whoever that was. Whoever her Somebody was, she was giving Nix more trouble than she deserved. Her Somebody must have had insomnia, because Nix could never, in her entire year of living in The Castle that Never Was, get a wink of sleep.

Nix slammed her already clenched fist onto the tile below her. Nothing fit, nothing ever did. She shook her short, wavy black hair out of her face where it had been draping due to her sudden abuse to the floor, and slid farther down the wall that she was resting against.

"What is my purpose here?"

"You'll know soon enough," came an all too familiar voice from nowhere. Appearing through a dark portal, which was no different in this castle than walking through doors, Saïx walked up to her.

Nix never had any trouble speaking to Saïx. In fact, he was the easiest one of the Organization to talk to (granted, she had never met Roxas or Axel, so she did not know if they were easy to talk to, as well). This was probably because he quite literally had no emotion; he was the most like a Nobody out of the entire Organization. Nix could go on and on about her burning questions without receiving an answer, but it was comforting. It was like talking to a wall that could nod and hear you.

"Saïx," Nix greeted the Nobody. He, too, sat down right next to her. In fact, they were sitting right on top of where Roxas's panel had been replaced with Nix's. Even her weapon, the keyblade called Reversal of Nothing was etched in. Nobody ever told her much about Roxas, but Nix didn't seem to mind. All she knew was that he reunited with his Somebody. As far as Axel, he was the first to be revived by Hades, and began to fight for the other side.

Whatever. She didn't need to know them, neither of them were important.

"Are you still trying to remember your past, Anixens?" Saïx asked calmly, not looking at her. He seemed to have an affinity with staring directly at the wall across from them, as if looking someone in his or her eyes made him uncomfortable.

"A fruitless attempt," Nix admitted, looking down at her own feet. She never felt quite right wearing the Organization's coat and underclothes, having not gone on a single mission. She trained against the Nobodies that she could summon every day, a strength from her past being brought with her when she became a Nobody, but she never got the chance to use it. "And you still can't tell me anything, I presume?"

"Actually," Saïx started, making Nix twist her head in his direction, "I came to get you through Xemnas's orders. Although I'm sure he probably got those orders from Thomas." Apparently in the original Organization, number I, Xemnas was the leader. But since Thomas took over, Xemnas became more of a second-in-command. There were thirteen of them now, but a number VIII was still missing, because nobody gave up their numbers in the Organization. Instead, Thomas was more of a Number 0.

"What does he need me for?" Nix murmured, "To clean Where Nothing Gathers?" Nix would kid Saïx not- she was frequently called down to clean numerous rooms of the Castle that Never Was, because none of the other Nobodies ever had the time.

Thomas had some kind of a mission he had been planning for an entire year, although Nix was never let in on the job. Either way, all of the Nobodies of Organization XIII (except her, of course) had been sent to do dirty work all the time.

"Actually, he needs this," Saïx surprised Nix by reaching out and grabbing her wrist, her palm facing upward to the ceiling. In moments, Reversal of Nothing flashed and appeared in her hand, and Nix needed Saïx to say no more.

Nix nodded to her friend, "Escort me?"

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**Twilight Town: The Clock Tower**

"Thomas," Cora said calmly, not even looking behind her. She knew that voice all too well. That was the voice that haunted her nightmares and her dreams alike. It was as if he was trying to speak with her, even when she thought herself to be perfectly safe, the last hint of darkness in her heart dissipated. Of course, even an entirely pure heart could not save someone from the darkness crawling around the corner. "Why are you here?"

"Warning you, of course," Thomas's voice came from behind her. Cora knew to only believe half of what Thomas said. It wasn't that he was a liar, no, he had never lied once in her knowing him. She did know, however, that he was crazy.

"Of what?" Cora asked, her voice still low. Her eyes were focused on the stars of the few lit rooms of buildings below her, but her mind was somewhere else. That was generally how it worked out for her those days.

"My new plan is taking shape," Thomas responded, walking up to her and standing next to her. Although he looked mostly different in his hair and eyes than Axel, his face gave away that he truly was his Heartless. It also helped that his black hair was streaked with the same fiery red that Axel's was made up of. His eyes, however, more closely resembled Cora's best friend's forest green ones. "And you're much more likely to fall into the darkness if you come after me, sweetheart," he told her.

Cora should have been unnerved with his calling her sweetheart, but it happened much too often when he had taught her how to control the Heartless and the darkness around her about a year and a half before. Still, for the first time, she turned her head to look at him, golden brown orbs meeting forest green ones, and replied lazily, "I'm done with the darkness, Thomas. That part of my life is behind me."

"Actually," Thomas began, "it's standing right next to you."

"That's true," Cora admitted, her feet teetering at the edge of the Clock Tower.

"Why do you look beneath you?" Thomas asked her this time.

"I'm just wondering how much it would hurt," Cora began, "would it hurt more to fall from the edge of the clock tower to the busy streets of Twilight Town, or to fall from the edge of the light into the depths of the darkness?" Granted, she already knew what the latter felt like. It never really did hurt, actually. It was more like Novocain.

Thomas however laughed a low, almost crazed chuckle, and walked forward and off of the edge. Of course, he stood on the air as if there was floor beneath him, hovering above the city, and walked in front of Cora, putting his hand under her chin, "Save that pretty little head of yours," he stated, "the Organization will need you once you come to your senses and come back to the darkness."

If anything, Cora had almost leaned into the touch, glad for the contact. Still, she restrained herself and looked forward as if she could see through the Heartless. "You'll know if I do."

At that, the clock rang midnight, and Thomas disappeared from in front of her in a burst of darkness, his hand leaving her vision and turning into nothing but smoke in front of her. "Someone's got to," she mumbled, turning around and walking off of the edge, back to the stairs that would bring her to the base of the clock tower, "I sure as hell won't."

**Author's Note: Sort of a slow first chapter, but the action will start in the next one, I swear. I'm pretty much only expecting Igor Lollipop to review this fanfiction at all, because I said 'no sequel until I get at least thirty reviews' for my last one, but she talked me into this. So, consider this for you, Igor. xD**

**See you next chapter, please review. :3**


	2. Heart in a Headlock

CHAPTER TWO:

_Heart in a Headlock_

**Here we are, chapter two! xD Thank you Igor Lollipop for the review, and thank you for the eight views, random lookers! :D I think Lollipop's the only one that reads, so I'm not going to bother with a disclaimer, because if I owned Kingdom Hearts, Lollipop would pester me to add in her fanfiction's characters, which I'd prolly do. xD**

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**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Where Nothing Gathers**

"Nix, so great of you to finally join us for official Organization XIII business," Xemnas began as Nix took her seat, which was lowered almost all the way to the ground because she had never been asked to complete a mission. Nix scowled, intent on simply finding out why Xemnas had called her there in the first place.

"With all due respect, superior," Nix began, "this is the first time you've ever called me down here for official Organization XIII business. Every other time has been so I could clean the place." It was true; Nix had constantly had to clean Where Nothing Gathers because she was always the free one.

"You should get used to this, then," Xemnas began. His hood was covering his face; apparently, he had gotten in an accident with fire that had left a burn. He hadn't taken his hood off since. "The orders are directly from Thomas; you will be here much more often. You, Anixens, are the key to drowning this world in darkness."

"Superior," Nix started, "I was never told why. However, I heard that the Organization's original plans were to create a new Kingdom Hearts and become Somebodies again. Why the change?" Nix suddenly felt oblivious, but it was true that nobody had ever told her the Organization's plans. She used The Castle tha Never Was to brush up on her history, but never did she learn about the future.

"It is Thomas's goal to drown the world in darkness. He is a Heartless after all, it's his nature. His world would be sort of a... playground," Xemnas continued, his voice once again condescending, "but he promised us that if we helped him, there was a special girl residing in Twilight Town that he knew could _create_ hearts. And, of course, we and whoever else we wanted would be safe from our hearts getting taken away."

Nix nodded; this made a little more sense. Still, a girl that could create hearts... this both seemed familiar and entirely ridiculous, but she never questioned Thomas before. In fact, she had never even seen Thomas's face before. She knew where he resided in the castle, but never actually went up to see him.

Maybe she should have.

"Can we get down to business, please," Xaldin called from a few chairs down.

"Can you get a haircut, please?" Nix asked, but then covered her mouth. Why should she even _care_?

"So the personality of your Somebody actually is reflecting in yourself right now, interesting," Xemnas said, although his voice didn't carry much interest with him, "but I digress, down to business. Anixens, are you aware that in your Somebody form, you had the ability to pull a Nobody out of its Somebody if they had been separated before?"

"I am aware," Anixens said, "I was the one that separated Naminé and Roxas from their Somebodies in my previous life." There was very little that she did know about her previous life, except that and that her hometown was on a world called earth, in a country called America. Then, she had moved to Destiny Islands.

She didn't even know who took her heart away.

"Thomas has had a theory for quite a while that when your heart was taken away, your powers transformed as well. All year, members of the Organization have been going on missions to look for cosmic clues and proof of this, and we now believe it to be true." Xemnas then put his hand in front of him, and with a flash of swirling dark and light, a platform in the center of Where Nothing Gathers began to rise.

Standing in the middle of the platform was a boy. He was around seventeen or eighteen years old based on his looks, and his wrists were bound to the platform with chains, as were his ankles. The boy had light brown hair that was slightly longer in front of his ears, and tousled everywhere except his bangs. His eyes were also a light brown, reflecting strong emotions that Nix had never experienced before. Based on his complexion, but only his complexion, she guessed that he was at least half Asian. He wore a fur-lined hooded jacket and dark jeans, looking like he was plucked directly off of a mountaintop.

"Who is he?" Nix asked, raising an eyebrow. The boy, looking angry, clenched his teeth together. There were small slashes in his jeans where the manacles were, and also slightly hollower ones where they were on his wrists. Obviously, he was a fighter, and had tried with failure to escape.

"His name is not important," Xaldin barked.

"Get a _haircut_." Nix said again, shutting him up. Suddenly, the platform in the center moved towards Nix, and she winced a little bit, and looked back at Xemnas. "What do you want me to do with him?" She was now less than an arms reach from him, but did not flinch. Despite having never gone on a mission, she definitely picked up an 'Organization XIII-like attitude', which couldn't be said for Demyx, Vexen, and a couple of other members. That, she clung to, because it was all that made her part of the Organization.

"This is a mage from the world of Eventide Mountains, where some of the most prestigious magic casters are born and trained. They are also known for their strong and controlled emotions."

"And why should an emotional mage be of any importance to me?" Nix asked, crossing her arms across her chest. She generally wasn't one to get impatient or upset easily, but something about this boy writhing and his angry face made her want to get whatever she had to get done _over with_.

"He would be strong," Xemnas said, "What I need you to do is try and pull a Nobody out of him. Your Somebody did it twice, it should feel quite natural for you."

Nix frowned, but she reached a hand out and put it on the boy's shoulder. Nix almost recoiled as the boy shuddered and cringed, obviously afraid of what she would do to him. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, when finally, she thought that she could feel something _other_ than the shoulder she had her hand on. The moment she realized this, however, she was unable to pull out a Nobody, instead, the boy threw himself farther back on the platform, gripping his head in agony.

"He's not cooperating," Nix pointed out the obvious, her voice completely steady despite the mage going through a mental breakdown in front of her.

Rather than answering, Xemnas just motioned back at the boy. After a moment more of hissing with his hands trembling, he began to stand up straight, his legs shaking. When he looked back up at Nix, she could hardly believe what she saw. The symbol of the Heartless, which made Nix recoil slightly, was over his left eye, even crossing over his eyebrow, in red. In a black, over his right eye, was the more familiar to her Nobody symbol.

His eyes, however, had also changed. Their pretty light brown had transformed into a light purple, almost sickly against the rest of his features. "What happened to him?" Nix asked, although this time, her voice was shaking.

"This," Xemnas began, "is what we have been researching. When someone has his or her heart taken away, they may split into one or two beings. It's either the Heartless, or the Heartless and the Nobody. The Heartless is what becomes of the human's _existence_, the darkness that resides inside them. The more darkness inside them, the more complex their Heartless is, sometimes gaining human-like emotions and form, but not the form and emotions from their Somebody. Are you following me?"

Nix nodded; because Axel had so much darkness in him when his heart was taken away, his Heartless, Thomas had become a human-like Heartless, with a personality and instinct, not much different than a Nobody, except from the essence of Darkness. "Yes," she answered.

"And the Nobody is the shell, the body. Everything except the heart and the absence of the heart. I suppose you already know all about the Nobodies," Xemnas said, and Nix nodded. Of course, the rest of the room laughed; in a place like Organization XIII, it would be shameful to not know of your own kind.

"But all we covered was the darkness and the bodies. Thomas and I have been researching, and we wondered, what happens to the _emotions_, the ones that are not left with the Nobodies or the Heartless?"

"They float up to Kingdom Hearts," Nix said, sure of her answer. "With the rest of the heart that the Heartless took away."

"Exactly," Xemnas continued, "but we thought and we thought, and we came to the conclusion that it is the _emotions_ that are the strongest part of the heart. This was all over a year ago, mind you. But if we could turn the human into a manifestation of its own emotions, we could create a super being. One that could help us drown the worlds in darkness. But _how_?"

"How could you create the super being, or how could you drown the worlds in darkness?" Nix asked.

"Well, isn't the latter obvious?" Zexion said, breaking the silence from where he sat, "When the population of the Heartless versus the population of the normal inhabitants of the world is larger, they'll be able to steal more hearts, _create_ more Heartless, and thus, 'drown the world in Heartless'."

"Shut _up_!" over half of the Organization called out to him.

"I was talking about the former," Xemnas elaborated, "as in, how could we create a super being? And then, Thomas had the perfect idea. He knew of a human that could pull out Nobodies from their shells," If Nix had a heart, it would have dropped to her stomach, "and if she became a Nobody herself, would her composition change to be able to grasp emotions, because it is the one thing that a Nobody lacks?

"As a secondary plan when he found the eighth Princess of Heart, he lured the girl in and stole her heart. Our objective, however, was to find her Nobody and bring her into the Organization. It took a year, but our research finally confirmed his and my theory. You have released a form that only you can release, called a Rhapsody."

"Rhapsody," Nix repeated, speaking the word for the first time, "so, I've just triggered a metaphorical switch to change this mage into the living essence of emotion?" Nix asked, not taking her eyes off of the boy, he was calmer now, although his hands were still trembling.

"Yes, weren't you listening to a word he was saying?" Xaldin called.

"_Get. A. Haircut._" Nix snapped back at him, and the boy actually gave the whisper of a chuckle. Nix raised her eyebrow now, suddenly realizing something; this boy had never used his voice around them. She couldn't look at the mage for too long, however, as his violet eyes seemed to bore a hole straight through her, overwhelming her with emotions and feelings she had never felt before. "What can it do?" Nix asked, now curious.

"I was hoping you would ask that," Xemnas began, "This Rhapsody has all of the abilities of a Nobody, with controls over passages to the Realm of Inbetween and Nothingness and control over the Nobodies. He also has all of the abilities of a Heartless, the control over darkness and ability to steal away hearts, but it doesn't rely on them. The special thing?" Xemnas paused, probably smiling, "He can do it twenty times more efficiently than the average Heartless."

"So this mage is your ticket to overwhelming every world in darkness?" Nix asked, perplexed, "That seems like a bit of a stretch."

Vexen took over this time, everybody's heads turning to him, as they weren't used to him speaking in these kinds of meetings. "He is only the leader- it's very difficult to take a child from Eventide Mountains, they treasure their younger generation. Just like Nobodies and Heartless, there are less humanlike Rhapsodies. We have a whole line of... _participants_ waiting for you down the hall."

"And when the Rhapsodies take a heart away...?"

"Another Rhapsody." Vexen responded.

Xemnas, however, was oddly silent, until he sighed, forcing all of the heads of Organization XIII to snap towards him. His hand was scratching the back of his head through the hood of his coat. "We have intruders."

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**Destiny Islands: The Home Island, The Road Home**

"Wait, Cora, slow down, I can't understand a word you're saying," Riku told her over the cell phone. Him, Riku and Kairi had just made it halfway home, and Riku had his finger in one ear because they were chatting excitedly about their summer plans.

"I _said_," Cora came on the other side of the phone, a little frustrated. She was definitely not a phone person, but it was her only quick way of getting in contact with Sora, Riku and Kairi. "Umeko's gone, and I think Axel went with her. She left a note, it's about Organization XIII." After a pause from the other line, she said, "So get your asses over here, and quick!" Click, the line ended. Riku frowned.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked.

"We have to take a visit to Twilight Town," Riku paused, "Umeko's gone. Something about Organization XIII."

Kairi shook her head, "I knew they would be into something. I knew it from the second Axel told us that Hades revived everyone." One of her fists were clenched; everyone had a bad past with the Organization, but Kairi was the only one that was captured by them, haunted with the fact that she would be bait for Sora.

"Let's go home first," Sora said, as he dug through his pocket for the Gummi Ship keys, which he always kept with him 'just in case', "Something tells me that we aren't going to be coming back anytime soon."

The rest of the walk to their home was silent. There was silence in the contemplating, the nerves, and the realization that they would never, ever be able to escape these things that pulled them away from their homes.

The Keyblade Curse, if you will.

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**Twilight Town: Just Outside of Umeko's House**

"Idiot," Cora whispered on her own, circling a rock on the floor like a vulture, another silly habit that she picked up whenever she was nervous or on a breakthrough in her research, "Idiot, idiot, idiot! You don't go off alone like that... even if you are with Axel. Not without telling me. Idiot, idiot... you don't have enough experience with the keyblade to take on the Organization, and just rushing into it blindly like that... that's selfish!"

Apparently, Sora, Riku and Kairi had heard part of her rant, because somewhere in her constant circling she had seen Riku standing in front of the group, his arms crossed over his chest. "We're here," he said, "Cora," his voice lingered on her name for a moment, "where's the note that Umeko left?"

Cora pulled a piece of paper out of the pocket of her jeans and handed it over to Riku. The note read:

_Cora,_

_I know you're going to be the first one to come here looking for me. Sorry my handwriting sucks, I'm writing this in a hurry, Axel made me leave a note. I was up in the middle of the night, and saw a suspicious guy in a black coat walking through a black portal. We both think he's a member of the Organization. We're on our way to The World that Never Was in a moment; don't come looking for us, we'll take care of it._

"But she says that they'll take care of it." Kairi said.

Sora, Riku and Cora all looked at Kairi like she should have known better. "She doesn't know anything about what they're planning. They could have been hanging around her house because they wanted to her to go looking for them, and they're using her as bait." Riku suggested, his mind obviously in that of a criminal.

"But she does get herself captured easily," Cora contemplated, "We're stronger than she is. Sure, she's got Axel, but this is the _Organization_. You never know what they can do." She paused. "We have to go get Umeko."

_I'll help._

Of course, Sora only heard this. Roxas stepped out, a shock to Sora every time, and materialized back into a touchable Nobody in seconds. This, of course, was all thanks to Sienna and her unique abilities. "I know the Organization," Roxas said, "I want to help out." He smiled, even at Cora.

"Then let's go," Sora said, swinging the keys to the Gummi Ship, "if we don't have a choice. We need to find out what Thomas is planning, anyway. No doubt he's probably taken over Organization XIII."

Sora, Roxas, Riku and Kairi all turned around, heading back towards the ship. Cora, however, stayed where she stood. "I'm not on your side, you know." she called to them, unmoving. All of their heads turned back to her. "I'm not on their side, either. I'm tired of being on sides. I'm just in it to get Umeko back." Cora paused, "She did it for me once, and now I have to. But that's it. Okay?"

Sora nodded his head. "I understand."

Roxas smiled. "It's better than being on the opposite side, I guess." In a way, Roxas was in there to find and help Umeko, too. After all, she had helped them stop Thomas the year before. He also wanted to find Axel; after all, he was his best friend. But there was something more Roxas wanted.

"I'm going to avenge Sienna," he said, "if it's the last thing I do."

The second Sora put his hand to the handle of the Gummi Ship's door, something froze all five of them in place. The sound of a loud, long whistle, echoing through the town.

**Author's Note: Kind of short, but I'm pressed for time, here. xD Anyway, hope you liked it, please review!**


	3. Better By Design

CHAPTER THREE:

_Better By Design_

**Chapter three! I'm glad I made it this far, I actually have a lot of ideas for the rest of this fic. Thanks to Igor for continuing reading this, and my newest reviewer, catharsis25, who is probably the only other one that reads this, and that's cool. xD Oh, and yes, a rhapsody is a Heartless, which is why either in this chapter or a later chapter, Sora's going to be very confused. xDD Enjoy!**

**Oh, and warning, this chapter might get a little skippy. Try your best to keep up. D:**

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**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"Can we get there any slower?" Cora asked, rubbing her temples with her fingers. Sora was driving the Gummi Ship this time, which is something that Riku, Kairi and Roxas actually weren't all that used to; Umeko had taken over the driving when she went to help them on their last adventure. She was reckless at times, but she got the job done quicker.

"I don't want to be shot down by Heartless ships," Sora responded, "besides, we're halfway there. I'm sure we'll be okay." While Cora opened her mouth to leave some unnecessary smartass remark, the ship felt an impact, and Sora cursing.

"What's going on up there?" Riku called up, standing. He could probably use some help with the weaponry controls if something big was going on.

"Big ship." was all Sora responded, "It's got the Nobody symbol on it."

Riku didn't need to hear any more. He ran up to the front and took the gears for the lasers. "Just dodge everything you can," Riku commanded him, "it might just be some Nobody lackeys from the Organization."

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**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Soundless Prison**

Just as Axel suspected would happen, Xemnas had felt their arriving. Both Umeko and Axel were intercepted only moments after they had arrived at Nothing's Call, by none other than Marluxia, who obviously wasn't interested in whatever meeting was currently being held. Of course, he gave Axel a snide look as he trapped them in the cell.

"Marluxia," Axel shouted to the pink-haired man when he turned on his heel to leave. Umeko was completely silent, but clutching her Star Seeker, which for some reason, would not unlock the jail cell. That, however, was most likely because the cell did not have a lock on it. It was opened by some special technique that only Xemnas could do, but only after it's locked. **Author's Note: I totally made that up.** "What is the Organization planning?"

Marluxia, however, just looked back over his shoulder for a moment and smiled at the man. "I'm not used to seeing you without your Organization coat, number VIII," he laughed and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.

"Can't you make a portal and get us out of here?" Umeko asked stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest. Obviously, all of her ideas had been canceled out, as she couldn't break the jail bars with her keyblade.

Axel shook his head. "All destructive and transportation abilities are neutralized down here." They both fell to the floor of the cell and sighed heavily. Axel, especially. He wasn't used to looking so helpless. Suddenly, however, he perked up. "But I can use other techniques." He stood up, followed by Umeko, and stuck his hand out.

In a small pool of darkness, the image of a white room with thirteen chairs all raised in different fashions appeared. "This is Where Nothing Gathers. It's where the Organization has its meetings," Axel started. They could see and hear everything going on in the room, and suddenly Umeko wanted to kiss Axel. That was _brilliant_. "Wait," he said.

"What is it?" Umeko whispered as if they could actually hear her through the tiny mirror-like darkness object that Axel had conjoured.

"What the- Roxas's seat is taken. You don't think he...?" Axel altered the scene slightly to see who was sitting in the chair, and all Umeko and Axel could do was look extremely confused. "Who is that?" he asked.

"She looks... a lot like Sienna," was all Umeko said, and Axel nodded his head slowly as if he understood. "Except her hair's dark. Except for that one strand. That was opposite on Sienna." She frowned; why was she in the Organization?

"Let's listen," Axel suggested.

"You want me to make an army of those things?" the girl that looked like Sienna asked, motioning towards the boy in the center of the room. He looked very odd, with purple eyes and the Nobody and Heartless symbol over them.

"Not an entire army," Xemnas clarified, "we want you to make about fifty. After that, they'll multiply like rabbits. Not even the normal Keyblade stands a chance against them. A special keychain is needed for them to even be _touched_."

"What is he?" Umeko murmured, but of course Axel didn't answer. How was he supposed to know, anyway.

"This boy is going to be the leader of the Rhapsodies, then?" the girl asked, chuckling slightly. None of the other members of the Organization shared her humor, however.

"Wait," Axel muttered, "he's dressed really warm. He probably came from Eventide Mountains, look at the staff on his back," he pointed to a small, purple scepter poking out of a sash on the back of the boy's body.

"Eventide Mountains?" Umeko asked, who had only seen a couple of other worlds if she even counted Twilight Town, her home world.

"They raise sages," was all Axel said, but then they quieted themselves to listen.

"He will mostly be guarding the castle and the prisoners in The Soundless Prison," at this, Umeko and Axel backed up a pace, "but he will also be directing the army as to which world to take over and when, and he will be going on some of the more difficult missions. That is, of course, so we can get a little break..." Xemnas muttered.

"And his name?" the girl asked.

"Anixens," Xaldin shouted, "it doesn't _matter_."

"You could use a facial, too," the girl named Anixens responded very lazily.

"Sienna," both Umeko and Axel said immediately.

"His name is Coy." Xemnas responded boredly. "Now, we haven't any time to waste. Go down the hall with the boy and create more Rhapsodies. We want them dispensed out to the worlds in an hour.

Axel got rid of the little seeing-glass darkness that they had been using. "We should call Roxas, or Sora, or anybody. They might even be on their way to save us."

"Let them," Umeko said, "they're strong enough."

"Didn't you hear them?" Axel asked curiously, "Xemnas said that they need a certain kind of keychain to be able to even touch these... Rhapsodies, or whatever they are. And by the looks of it, they've got an hour to find it, got it memorized?"

"But we don't even know what it is!"

"Then they'll have to find out." He looked at Umeko, who still wasn't doing anything. "Time is ticking," he urged, pointing to his watchless wrist.

Umeko yanked out her cellphone from her shorts' pocket. "Let's hope there's reception in this dump."

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**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"It's almost down!" Riku shouted excitedly from the cockpit. It wasn't often that he got to operate anything on a Gummi Ship, so obviously it had gotten to him. Of course it was almost down; Highwind was one of the strongest Gummi Ships out there. At least, it was with all of the upgrades that Umeko had put on it.

Suddenly, Cora's cell phone rang. Not even hesitating when seeing the Caller ID, she picked up. "Umeko," she began immediately, "where are you? Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

Umeko sighed over the phone. "We're in The Soundless Prison, but we're safe. Where are you? Are you coming over here?" Her voice was possibly more nerve-wracked than Cora's, which deeply confused her.

"What?" Cora asked, "We're about halfway there. Why?"

"_Don't_ come here," Umeko snapped, "this is going to sound crazy, but you'll have to believe me because we heard it." Umeko paused for a moment. "Sienna's Nobody, Anixens, or whatever, has this ability to create a kind of super being called a Rhapsody. We don't know that much about it, but we know that you've got an hour before they send Rhapsodies out to every world."

"Rhapsodies, huh?" Cora asked, "We'll be there within an hour no problem."

"No, that's not it," Umeko said, her voice more distressed, and maybe a little hurried. "There's only one kind of keychain that can do anything to them. We didn't get its name, but your keyblades are powerless against them. Like I said, we don't know much about them, but I'm thinking they're a big threat."

"This isn't good," Cora said, finally understanding. "Do you know the name of the keychain?" Cora asked quickly.

"No, I-" Confused by the sudden cut-off, Cora looked at the phone- call ended. They were probably stopped or something. Cora sighed, and turned off her cell phone. Sora and Riku had just beaten the enemy ship.

"Guys," began Cora, "we have a problem."

Of course, Sora, Roxas, Riku and Kairi listened intently as she told them about her conversation with Umeko, but at the end, Sora raised his hand as if he was an eager schoolboy who knows the answer to two plus two.

"A Rhapsody?" Sora asked, "Like the Heartless?"

"No," Cora replied impatiently, "A whole other being."

There was a momentary silence. "So like the Heartless?"

Face. Palm. "No," Cora said once more, slowly. "It's an entirely different being. Remember when you didn't know what a Nobody was? How it was an entirely different being than a Heartless? That's what this is."

After a moment, Sora smiled, nodding his head. Phew.

"But she doesn't know what the keychain is that we need," Roxas said, his hand to his chin. "how are we supposed to get the keychain, five of the same ones, at that, and get to the castle and stop them all within an _hour_?"

"Sheer force of will?" Kairi suggested, shrugging. Leave it to Kairi to shed a little bit of light on the situation.

"Wait," Roxas said, after a moment of thinking. "I remember in my year in the Organization, Marluxia and Xemnas were having a conversation about a keychain that could attack any being, even spirits. It's got to be that one." He paused. "The name... the name... Midday Moments. It was supposed to represent the perfect inbetween of everything. Where could we get it?"

"One person I know who always has _everything_," Sora began, smiling at the rest of them. Nobody could answer him. Sora sighed; oh, how he needed Donald and Goofy at that moment. "Cid." Sora, who realized he had left the Gummi Ship's cockpit unattended, ran back to the room to change direction back to Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.

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**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House**

"Hey, Sora, great to see you!" Yuffie came, the first one to greet them as they walked in the door. "It's been forever!" She went up and hugged Sora, but then frowned, very uncharacteristic of her. Why were his friends there? "Has something happened, Sora?" she asked, but Sora kept looking at his watch. Forty-five minutes left.

"Cora will explain," Sora said, pushing Cora towards Yuffie. Yuffie, however, was a little edgy; Cora had been the 'opponent' in their race to find the eighth Princess of Heart, after all. It was a little unnerving. Cora, however, neutrally began to explain it to Yuffie as Sora walked up to Cid, who had just appeared out of the hallway. **Author's Note: I realize that this house is generally a big room in the game, but I expanded it to more of a house-like place to actually, I don't know, make sense.**

"Hey, Sora, how're ya doin'?" Cid asked slowly.

"Great, Cid, just great," Sora said, trying to speed up their conversation a little bit. "We have forty-five minutes to find five copies of the keychain...?"

"Midday Moments," Roxas began.

"Midday Moments, and get to The World that Never Was. Can you help us out?" Sora asked expectedly. If he had it on him, they might just be able to make it to The World that Never Was before time ran out."

"Ac'tally, I recognize that name. I think I had one just about a week ago, but I threw it in the junk bin over at Radiant Garden castle. I keep my junk in the waterway so nobody else c'n get at it. If ya can find it fer me, I can prol'ly copy it as many times for ya as ya need," he recommended.

"Great," Sora said, although what he was thinking was, _Great, this can never be that easy. We can still make it if we hurry_. He grabbed Cora's arm, even though she was in the middle of Yuffie explaining to her that she would dig up any information about the creation of Heartless and Nobodies that she could to find out where the Rhapsodies come from.

"We've got to get to Radiant Garden castle, quickly, at the waterway." Kairi, Riku and Roxas, of course, did not argue at all, but Cora did call Sora a few names and made him let go of her arm. Obviously, Cora didn't like being unnecessarily touched.

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**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Soundless Prison**

"It's been about twenty minutes," Umeko murmured. "What if they don't make it?" she asked pessimistically, but at least she was being realistic. Axel, however, was resting in the corner of the cell, getting a little sick of Umeko's complaining. Then again, he couldn't blame her. He wanted out just as much as she did.

"Then they'll have to destroy the Rhapsodies in the other worlds, won't they?" Axel asked, dragging on slightly. "If they're any stronger than Nobodies and Heartless, which I'm guessing they are based on that kid, Coy's, marks on his eyes, than they can probably swallow up a world in nothing flat." He paused. "That is what Thomas wants, isn't it?"

Umeko turned around to face Axel, as she was the one pacing. It must have been difficult for him; after all, this was his Heartless. It was probably in a Heartless's nature to want to drown the world in darkness, but two questions burned in her mind; where were the rest of the Heartless of the Organization, minus Sora, of course, who had turned back into a human with the help of Kairi, and why was the Organization helping Thomas?

"Probably," Axel said, cursing himself lightly. If he hadn't lost his heart due to the darkness, maybe he wouldn't have such a fucked-up Heartless. He had to admit, however, it was the darkness that made him strong enough to come back as a Nobody. It was almost too bad that all Axel knew about his past was that he lost his heart because he was so deep in the darkness. A lot of the Nobodies knew at least a little more than that.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Axel's head snapped to the bars of the prison, but Umeko's entire body turned to it. Walking in front of them was Coy, the Rhapsody that had been in the center of the room. Of course, Xemnas said that he would be patroling The Soundless Prison. Why wasn't he helping Anixens make more Rhapsodies?

He probably had just as much as an independent attitude as Umeko did.

"Hey," Umeko said, causing Coy to stop in front of the cell. "Are you really a Rhapsody?" she asked, causing Axel to smack his forehead in annoyance. That was just great; now the Organization would know that they knew about the Rhapsodies.

Surprisingly, Coy looked down at his hand, which he turned over a couple times, and back up at them with amethyst eyes, nodding.

"Where are you from, Coy?" Umeko asked, trying to confirm Axel's suspicions that he was probably from Eventide Mountains. Unfortunately for Umeko, Coy just looked down at his feet, saying nothing.

It took Umeko a minute to notice it, but she had never heard this boy make a noise yet. "Are you mute?" she finally asked, bluntly and out there, which caused Axel's palm to meet his face yet again. Luckily for her, the boy just nodded. "Why are you gonna go through with this? Don't you have a family?" she asked, completely disregarding that the boy couldn't even answer her with words.

The boy raised his eyebrows and jerked his head back towards the entrance, but Umeko heard him loud and clear.

"You probably don't have a choice, huh?" Umeko laughed. She then walked to the side of the cell and fell to the floor, mirroring Axel. "I should let you keep going, then, before Xemnas murders you or something."

Much to Umeko's shock, the boy gave her a sad smile and continued on his way.

Obviously, this wasn't his idea of a fun day.

**Author's Note: Ah, there we are. I'll finish up the one-hour-to-get-to-the-Rhapsodies thing in the next chapter. I'm actually expecting this to be very fun to write. Anyway, please review!**


	4. Nothing to Salvage

CHAPTER FOUR:

Nothing to Salvage

**Author's Note: Sorry that last chapter was so short, I'll try to compensate. If it means anything, I was still in the process of thinking up a decent plot, which I've got now. xD I'll try to keep the chapters at a decent length now. So, as for my disclaimer, I don't own anything but the plot, my OCs, and my annoying writing style.**

**Oh, and as a warning, I'm extremely distracted as I write this. Dx Please r+r!**

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**The Radiant Garden: 'Hollow Bastion Castle', Waterway**

"How much time left?" Roxas asked as he hastily searched every corner of the Waterway. He didn't know this place; after all, he wasn't even born until after Sora had been finished with this castle. On the bright side, it was Heartless-free and beautiful now, but the Waterway still smelled somewhat like a sewer.

"Half hour," Sora responded back, more thoroughly searching the Waterway with Riku as both of them had spent a decent amount of time in that castle. Still, it was difficult for them to remember, it being about three years since they last set foot in the Waterway.

"What's this?" Kairi asked, poking at something with her shoe. Without hesitation, Cora being the first one to get to her, the rest of them ran over. Sure enough, there was a box of junk, as well as a few keychains that Sora didn't recognize.

"It's this one," Roxas said quickly, picking one up. The metal was a polished bronze, and the charm at the end looked like a bright sun that glimmered with the colors of red, orange and yellow, which almost seemed hot to the touch, "I can tell. Midday. The sun's at its brightest then. Unless there's a storm or something..."

"Whatever," Cora said hastily, pacing in place. "Let's go!"

Sora nodded. "She's right, we don't have much time left. Roxas, can you make a portal?"

Roxas shook his head. "I may be a Nobody, but I left the darkness behind me. That's why I can reunite with you and your heart." Of course, the only reason that when he left Sora's body that he was solid was because of Sienna's unique powers. He didn't know if he was more excited to rid the world of the Rhapsodies or meet Anixens, the one that Umeko told Cora was Sienna's Heartless. The idea greatly excited him.

But what if she changed?

"Then we run!" Kairi said, smiling. She always enjoyed racing with Sora and Riku throughout the island, even when she and Sora were sixteen and Riku seventeen; it reminded her that they still had some time left to be kids.

Sora nodded, "Right," he said, but not before he swiped up the three keychains that he didn't recognize. May as well give them a shot. Nobody else noticed, and when Sora turned around, he noted Cora in the lead, followed closely by Kairi and Riku, Roxas soon after. If he didn't get moving, they'd never make it.

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**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, the Soundless Prison**

"Twenty minutes left," Umeko complained, still pacing in the cell. Axel held many traits, none of which were patient. After a while, he put his two hands to his head and sighed so heavily that it made Umeko stop in her tracks.

"Calm down," Axel commanded her, "you're making me dizzy." He then looked up when Umeko fell back down to the cold floor beneath her. "They did a good job of rebuilding this place," he mentioned offhandedly, "looks like new."

"Sora didn't do that much damage to the Castle," Umeko noted, "The Leaning Tower that Never Was was destroyed, but I think that was the worst damage."

"You mean the Altar of Naught?" Axel laughed, "That was never even built well. I'm just surprised that Thomas managed to kick Maleficent out of the tower. Didn't she plan to use it as her own once the Organization was gone?"

Umeko nodded. "But the whole Organization was never gone, was it?"

Axel thought deeply. Although he and ten other members of the Organization had surely faded into darkness before Hades revived them, Xemnas was always great at faking his death, and Roxas had never faded; he found his light and now moves freely throughout the light realm. "I guess not." he laughed.

"Maybe Maleficent isn't gone." Umeko said conversationally. None of them had ever really cared about the strength of Maleficent, but they knew that if she could be revived by the mere memories of Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, she was probably a lot stronger than they had ever given her credit for.

"Even if she was," Axel murmured, "anyone remembering her could bring her back. All they need is a crow and her robe." He smiled at Umeko, which actually caused her to laugh for a moment.

"What happens if they don't make it in time?" Umeko asked Axel, changing the subject back to exactly what he was trying to distract her from. They wondered faintly what they would have to talk about if not about other worlds, the darkness and keyblades; what kind of friends would they be?

"Don't let them come after us, then." Axel responded. Umeko's head snapped toward him, and she bore a worried expression on her face. "If they send out all of those Rhapsodies, who are apparently so goddamn strong, they should save the worlds before the light realm is destroyed with darkness. They can leave us to escaping a prison; we'll find something."

"That's true," she paused, "but there's no way out from the inside."

"We'll find a way."

Umeko sighed; and Axel had accused _her_ of jumping to the conclusions without knowing all the facts. She looked at her watch again. "Fifteen minutes left."

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**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House**

"Fifteen minutes left," Sora said, looking at the clock plastered on the walls of Merlin's house. He glanced over at Merlin's pile of books, and then at his bed, shoved in the corner. Cid sure was taking his sweet time making copies of this keychain, but at least it would happen. He glanced down at his keyblade and then pulled out one of the keychains that he had picked up in Cid's 'pile of junk'.

Cora was standing with her right hand over her left wrist, playing with a black and purple weaved bracelet around it nervously. She tended to do that lately; but who wouldn't be nervous with the time they had left? Riku and Kairi were talking with each other about what they think the Rhapsodies might be like, and Roxas was listening intently, occasionally nodding his head.

"They have the powers of a Heartless and a Nobody, I think we should be more worried about how strong they are," Roxas paused, "and why they would even be listening to Thomas and the Organization."

"Have you _seen_ Thomas?" Riku asked Roxas, "He's just a Heartless, no more than who Xehanort became, but he either scared or bribed the Organization into working with him. If he could do that to the Organization, something tells me it should be just as easy to do that to the Rhapsodies."

"This is the first time they've ever been outside of a person's heart, right? As in, taken over their body?" Kairi asked, putting her hand to her chin, "I wonder what they'd be after if this was something that happened naturally. Light? Hearts? Would they live like human beings?" Sora chuckled to himself as he listened to this; it was difficult to think of something that sounds so scary as being like a human being, and if they were anything like the Nobodies and the Heartless, very few would look like humans.

Still, he sighed and blocked their obsessive chatter out of his mind as he held the keychain that he picked out up to his head. It looked odd; the chain was made out of some sort of alloy; it was a silverish color, but it didn't look like silver. The charm itself looked like a bright star. The other two had the same chain. One of the other two had a charm similar to the one Sora was holding, with the star, except it was black. The last one had the charm of a simple, black circle.

Much to Sora's curiosity, he summoned Ultima. The charm still gleamed at the end of it, and Sora sighed; the reassuring weight in his hands was something he had missed, even when nothing was going on in the worlds. He pulled off the Ultima charm and stuck it in his pocket and put on the new, starry charm.

And nothing happened.

Curiously, he tried the other two. Nothing happened. Of course, Cid would throw them away, they were probably defective experiments of his own. He sighed and put them back in his pocket; maybe he would give them to Kairi once everything was over.

"It's done," Cid said excitedly, walking out with five identical charms, one for Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Sora and Cora. They all barely had time to thank him when they grabbed the charms and rushed out the door; they could deal with that after they saved Cora and Axel and stopped the Rhapsodies from escaping.

With ten minutes left.

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**Song's Shimmer: Crescendo Streets**

Something was changing, Kasa could feel it, smell it in the air. At least, she believed that she could. It was only recently that she had begun to try and get in touch with her Native American heritage; she was even wearing feathers in her medium-length dark brown hair now, in the grooves where her two small pigtails met the rest of her hair, which she let down. Looking at her dark skin, she realized for a moment that just because she was Native American, didn't necessarily mean she was as in-tune with nature as her ancestors were. For crying out loud, she was listening to Japanese music on her ipod.

As usual, the summer breezes of Song's Shimmer were beautiful. The entire town was beautiful, everything shining somehow brighter as of late. She closed her eyes and smelled the air; it even _smelled_ good. Breaking her out of her temporary trance was a shove on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to look in front of her.

A boy recoiled a moment, his hair shining an odd indigo and covering half of his face, just a little too long. He looked annoyed, and Kasa wasn't surprised to hear what the first words that came out of his mouth were. "Watch it," he said, and then took another look at her, "What, are you six or something?"

Kasa crossed her arms over her chest; yes, she was short, and yes, she had a baby face, but she wasn't six. "I'm seventeen," she replied, furrowing her eyebrows. "And you're a jerk." She moved her shoulder deliberately out of the way and continued stubbornly, closing her black eyes importantly as she walked.

"Yeah, right," the boy murmured as he walked off. Dolan really wasn't a bad person, he was just annoyed far too easily, especially by people like that girl who can't look where they're going. _And what's with her?_ he thought, _She looks like she just stepped out of some sort of Pocohontas story_. He shook his head and blinked his azure eyes twice. All he needed to do was get to the bakery and out of the Crescendo Streets of Song's Shimmer.

God, how he hated that place. It was too small and too full of vegetation. All his life he wanted to live in a city.

Finally, he stepped into the bakery, so cleverly titled 'Crescendo Streets Bakery'. The boy at the desk was painfully cheerful when he walked in, smiling right at him. "How can I help you?" he asked, flipping his golden hair out of his face, revealing two rare, gray eyes. Probably some football player that got a hundred girls. Like that interested Dolan in the slightest.

"I need to pick up a cake that was on waiting. Under the name Dolan," Dolan said, not looking back at his blue eyes. He just wanted in and out, but that seller, Blaise was always so damn social. However, Dolan had gone there every day, and most likely, Blaise knew not to talk to him for too long by then.

"Sure," Blaise said, flipping through a book. After a moment, he stepped in the back, and Dolan got a good look at the place. It was comfortable looking, even with a television facing the counter because they barely got any business. Dolan's mom always sent him here anyway, because apparently their cakes are 'the best'.

Blaise returned with a pink and white cake in a plastic box and handed it to Dolan. It had already been paid for, so he just walked off. Blaise sighed; he never really knew how to deal with that costumer. He was so picky, and when he was pleased, he never praised anything. He never even wanted to talk.

Bored, Blaise clicked on the television, and the news started to drown out everything else. He didn't even know why he turned on the news; it was always something depressing, and Blaise tended to try and avoid depressing situations. "In other news, at least ten teenagers were kidnapped in the small town of Song's Shimmer. Detectives can find no relationship between any of them, except for two, which were twins. There were no signs of struggle at the scenes, and no bodies have yet been found."

He clicked off the television and rolled his gray eyes. Of course, something else upsetting. Apparently, Song's Shimmer wasn't the only place that had teenagers and young adults stolen; he immediately watched his back.

Something _was_ changing.

Kasa, Dolan, and Blaise could all feel it. That didn't mean that they knew what was coming.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"Five minutes left, Sora!" Cora pressured the driver as she paced in the ship. That habit, she had picked up from Umeko, who had picked it up from Olette during their stay in Twilight Town. It was not a great habit, but it was a great way to lose weight, second only to fighting Heartless, Nobodies, and probably very soon, Rhapsodies.

"I get it," Sora called back with no real heat. This boy could never get mad at anyone, Cora swore. When he did get mad, however, he was quick to fume up and quick to get over it. It was true that this keyblade wielder belonged in the Light Realm. In fact, Cora was the original keyblade wielder chosen for the light realm, but when she fell into the darkness, it was handed over to Riku, who also chose the path to darkness.

It was true that, by default, Sora had gotten the keyblade, but he probably did a better job than anyone else could.

"We're here!" Sora called, landing the Gummi ship. Four minutes left. Cora didn't even bother to look at her watch anymore as she pulled Riku out by the hand, as he was the one that was lagging behind. If they could just get into the castle before the four minutes were up, they could at least distract the Organization.

"Run, dammit!" Cora shouted to Riku. She had let go of his hand for a moment to see if he could run on his own, but he decided to lag behind.

Riku smirked at her. "You're kind of cute when you're angry."

Although Cora's cheeks blazed red, she only got angrier at Riku. "This isn't the time for trying to psyche me out!" she called to him. Riku often said things like this to make her embarrassed the year before, or so she liked to believe.

"Sora, we're not going to make it," Roxas called deeply from farther back, just a few steps ahead of Riku and behind Cora, but farther to the left.

"You should be ashamed to call yourself my Nobody!" Sora said, although even himself, he couldn't help but to laugh. It was true that their chances of making it to The Castle that Never Was was slim, but there was still a chance.

And at that moment, they stopped in front of the entrance to The Castle that Never Was. Two odd beings were guarding it, as hundreds more of the red and black beings were shooting off in different directions. The Rhapsodies were on their way to the other worlds; they were too late. "Let's get the guards," Sora said, "if we can get inside, maybe we can at least get Umeko and Axel," he suggested.

As quick as they could, the five of them attached Midday Memories to their keyblades, all of them becoming fiery-looking keyblades but with a much more yellow tint, where points on the edge extended to white tips. The only difference was Sora's, who held the original, which extended to blue tips.

The Rhapsodies almost looked like ghosts, like the equivalent of the Heartless Shadows. They were all red except for the occasional black stripe, and their eyes were a deep-set violet. No doubt were there tens of other varieties of these, but that was not what Sora wanted to think about. Almost as soon as he swiped at the Rhapsody with his keyblade, it grabbed the edge of it and flung him backwards.

"Crap," Sora whispered to himself as Cora took over the Rhapsody that he had just gotten his ass kicked in one move by. Not only were they smart and fast, but they were strong, too. He got up again and remembered to not get to close to it this time, and sent a Fira his way. Backing up, he finally disappeared. The creepy thing about it was that it was supposed to take hearts like a Heartless, but when it faded, no heart floated upward to Kingdom Hearts.

"If the Organization doesn't want hearts..." Sora began.

"What do they _want_?" Riku finished.

"Oh, we still want hearts," a voice rang from above. As the last of the two Rhapsodies were destroyed, they all looked upward at one platform on the castle's exterior to find a hooded figure, the voice giving away exactly who it was.

"Xemnas," Cora shouted, "Release Umeko!" She hadn't said a thing about Axel, however.

Xemnas shook his head. "She trespassed on our stronghold. As you five are about to," If they could see his face, he would probably be scanning all of them. "We still want hearts, and Thomas knows how to give them to us. This is just a matter of us completing our side of the bargain," he drawled.

"_Your_ side of the bargain?" Kairi asked. Although her voice was confident, her hand was shaking on her Midday Memories, "What would that be, darkening the world?"

"Exactly," he responded, and Kairi stepped back; she should have known. They _all_ should have known. Thomas was a Heartless, after all. What else would he want except _another_ Realm of Darkness? He would probably go after the Realm of Nothingness and even the Realm of Inbetween next.

"Get down here and fight us!" Riku commanded, "Sora and I would love to kick your ass _again_." he challenged.

"I'm not going to fight you," the man dragged on, "because if you take more than three steps into this castle, the Rhapsodies will take care of you. Are you really going to go let them all destroy the rest of the worlds?"

At that, Xemnas disappeared. The rest of them couldn't help but to think that he definitely had a point, but they were interrupted by Cora's ringtone. She whipped out her cellphone to see Umeko's caller ID, and clicked it on. "Hello?" Cora asked.

"Cora, time's up, they sent out all of the Rhapsodies that Anixens changed."

"I see that," Cora said, grimacing as if she could taste a thousand copper pennies in her mouth. **Author's Note: Copper pennies, as opposed to... silver pennies? xD Sorry, figured we would need some comic relief right about here.** "We're coming inside to get you," Cora decided.

"No, don't," Umeko urged, "we'll find a way out. First, before you guys come and stop Thomas and the Organization, you have to stop their _plan_. Stop them from drowning the Light Realm in darkness, and there's nothing they can do. Plus, you'll get more experience fighting the Rhapsodies. Did you get the special keychains?"

"Yeah, I think," Cora said. After all, they were able to fight the Rhapsodies all right.

"Good," Umeko said, "And don't worry about us, we'll make it out of here somehow. Just go save the worlds!"

Cora frowned. "But _I don't have a reason to-_" Click. The phone turned off, and Cora cursed as she shoved it into her shorts' pocket. It was true; the only reason she was helping these four at all in the first place was to be able to find Umeko. "What Would Umeko Do," she murmured to herself. After all, she had gone through hell and high water for Cora, it was the least she could do.

"Looks like I'm helping you guys 'save the worlds'," Cora said unenthusiastically, or maybe just much too tired. "Where to first?"

Riku smiled a little. "Well, which world means the most to us?"

Roxas, Riku, Sora and Kairi all said 'Destiny Islands' at the same time as Cora said 'Twilight Town'.

"We have to save_ my_ home town, too," Cora pressed when she realized that the others wouldn't budge. "I'll go alone if I have to, just drop me off there on your way to Destiny Islands," she told them.

"We can't leave you alone," Riku said, his voice decided.

Cora smiled. "I'm strong enough." her voice showed an even stronger tone of stone and decision, so Riku just nodded and backed up. "After we get our hometowns, we'll go to Disney Castle. Mickey's got to know a thing or two about how we can stop the Organization." Cora had been on good terms with Mickey until she had gone to 'the dark side'- in fact, King Mickey and Umeko had both helped teach her how to wield a keyblade correctly.

"It's decided, then," Sora said, glancing over at Roxas, Riku and Kairi. "Let's go."

**Author's Note: Okay, so it wasn't amazingly long, but it was definitely something. And just so you know, that scene in Song's Shimmer wasn't entirely random; those three characters, Kasa, Dolan and Blaise will be important later, but not right at the moment. See you in the next chapter!**


	5. Alive with the Beating of Young Hearts

CHAPTER FIVE:

_Alive with the Beating of Young Hearts_

* * *

**Author's Note: I swear, this fanfiction just got ten times more fun to write. That happens both when you introduce new OCs and kill off characters. xD I'm seriously interested in Kasa, Dolan and Blaise. Especially Kasa, she seems so interesting. : D Look at how I don't even know my own characters yet... Anyway, let's see how this goes!**

* * *

**Twilight Town: Tram Commons**

"Fuck," Cora swore to herself as she was bombarded by Rhapsodies. Most of them looked like the guards that she had seen at The Castle that Never Was, but others were larger, a couple of them looking almost like cats. As they closed in on her, their movements, too, resembled a cat's- full of poise and unblinking.

What must have been worse was that at least ten Shadows and Knights were mixed in with the lot of Rhapsodies. Her grip tightened on Midday Moments, unused to the handle but ready to fight with it, anyway. "Say good-bye," Cora whispered as she charged at the closest Rhapsody. It dodged her slash and hit her backwards, but she caught herself on the ground and stabbed it in what would be its stomach. The Rhapsody grabbed the hilt of the keyblade. This was a move that Cora had been ready for, however, because she often practiced against humans. However, she never expected a Rhapsody, something similar to a Nobody and to a Heartless, to act _so human_.

Then again, what would that make Thomas?

She gripped Midday Moments tighter and finally hammered it behind her, sending the Rhapsody flying and disappearing halfway through the air. By the time that Rhapsody was gone, two more, both of them the cat-type that Cora had never faught before, and a Shadow had begun to attack her, the Heartless preoccupied with tripping her at her ankles.

More quickly this time, Cora was able to destroy the cat Rapsody, having some experience with how cats acted because her best friend Umeko had had five of them. However, the moment the first cat Rhapsody was gone, the next one sank its gigantic claws into her back. She would have stayed up to fight it, but the Heartless at her ankle tripped her.

Moments later, the Shadow pulled out a hand toward her heart. Cora groped for her fallen keyblade, but before she had a chance to get it, the weight pushing her down was gone. As she pushed herself up by her elbow, she blinked a couple of times to gain focus. In only moments, the last Rhapsody was gone, and the figure that had saved her straightened up to look at her.

He must have been in his early twenties with golden hair, clothed in material so complicated that she couldn't describe it. What she did notice, however, as he extended his hand to help her up, was his Heaven's Cloud broadsword.

"Cloud," Cora stated matter-of-factly, not even acknowledging that he had just saved her as she took his hand and pulled herself up. Cloud had been one of her neighbors back when she lived in Nibelheim when she was younger, but at a young age, she had moved to Twilight Town, leaving him and Tifa Lockeart, also her senior by a few years, behind.

Cora wanted to be serious, but she couldn't help but to laugh slightly when she saw her height against his. She was just as tall as he was despite his age; everyone in Nibelheim was always so short, but Cora wasn't born there. In fact, she wasn't quite sure where she was born, since she got to think about it.

"Cora," Cloud echoed her, "It's been a while."

Cora nodded, but did not respond to that. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to; the last time she had seen him was a year before when she was under the command of Thomas and checking out 'the competition', otherwise known as Sora, Riku, Kairi and Sienna. "What do you know about the Rhapsodies?" Cora asked.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "I figured you would know, you were the one working with Thomas for so long."

Cora shook her head. "So it definitely is Thomas controlling the Organization, then?" She didn't wait for Cloud's answer before she continued, "And Sienna's Nobody is a new member of the Organization. Anixens."

The man nodded his head lightly. "At the Restoration Committee, we're digging up as much information as we can. We managed to catch one of the Rhapsodies, and we're analyzing it. Apparently, they're equipped with all of the powers of a Nobody, a Heartless and knowledge about themselves and the other Rhapsodies. They're practically human."

That much, Cora could figure out on her own. "When will you be finished extracting the information?"

Cloud pulled up his sleeve and looked at his electronic watch. "Come back to Merlin's house tonight. You all can sleep there, and the information should be ready by the morning. What I do know is that these enemies are strong. Stronger than any normal Heartless or Nobody you've ever faced before." He stopped for a moment, before turning his head to look directly into Cora's golden brown eyes. "Have you gotten taller?"

Cora laughed lightly, and pulled Cloud into a hug, which he returned. Cloud, however, was the one to speak. "You should have visited Nibelheim a little more often. Everyone missed you back there."

Cora pulled away, her expression shifting to that of a serious one, "I will, but first I have to exterminate all of the Rhapsodies here. The defensive system you guys set up should take care of the small amount of Heartless and Nobodies just fine, it always has, but I don't think it'll be able to exterminate these pains in the ass."

"I agree," Cloud said, "I have what I need, though," he pulled up a lock of fur that he must have grabbed from the Rhapsody, "The last kind of DNA we need; we have skin, fur and scales. I should go back to the Radiant Garden."

Cora nodded as Cloud jumped out of sight. It was still odd for him to call it Radiant Garden, Cora could tell. Even she wanted to call it Hollow Bastion a lot of the time, and so did the rest of them. Still, she continued on her way, hoping that this was the largest group of Rhapsodies that she would see.

* * *

**Destiny Islands: The Small Island**

The Rhapsodies were crawling so far up Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas's asses that they weren't exactly sure if they would make it out of there alive. Riku immediately became worried as they finally destroyed the last one they could find in only the northern half of the small island, wondering how difficult it must be for Cora at her world.

"After we get rid of all the Rhapsodies here," Roxas said aloud, "we should find a more effective way to save the worlds from darkness." Sora chuckled lightly at the sarcasm in his voice as he jumped on some sort of a plant-shaped Rhapsody.

"It's... just... so... annoying!" Sora said, as he finally used Midday Moments to swipe the Rhapsody out of the way. "I wish Jiminy was here. That way we could at least know what these things are called and their weaknesses."

"Then we'll go to Disney Castle tomorrow," Kairi said, who didn't seem to have that much of a problem with the Rhapsodies that she was left with, either that, or she was actually a much better keyblade wielder when she had a keychain with good statistics. Destiny Blade was never the easiest keyblade to get around with.

"If it's not swallowed up by then," Riku murmured, wielding his Midday Moments, "and I'm starting to miss Way to Dawn. This keyblade just seems so..."

"Girly?" Roxas finished for him, destroying a few Shadows in one fell swoop.

"That's not a problem," Kairi said, "while all of you were rushing off, I asked Cid a favor. He's going to find out what it was about Midday Moments that made it able to get rid of the Rhapsodies. We should stop by there tonight."

"Kairi, you're brilliant," was all Sora could say, preoccupied with a herd of Heartless. "It looks like we've got all of the Rhapsodies in the second half of the island taken care of," he announced to the three others.

"_Get away!_" a nasaly voice called from further down the island. A small, white figure with a giant orange beak was beating a Shadow against the head with an odd-looking staff, paired with a very tall, dog-looking man. Both of them were wearing odd clothes; it had been a little over a year since Sora had seen them last.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora shouted, and once he got their attention, his left hand darted into the air and began to wave madly at the two. They stood dumbly in the middle of the island before they charged excitedly at Sora, knocking him down to the ground.

"Sora! We were looking for you!" Goofy blurted, nuzzling into his face.

Sora laughed. "I went on a whole adventure looking for you guys!"

"We almost found you," Donald spat as they stood up, and then overturned his wingy hands to face them palm-up, "but by the time we got to End of the World you guys already saved the eighth Princess!"

"Her name's Cora, she's with us right-" Sora paused, looking behind him, and then back at Goofy and Donald, "Well, she's saving Twilight Town while we get rid of all of the Rhapsodies here at Destiny Islands. Were you here because you were looking for me?" He put his hands on his hips as he stood up.

Goofy nodded, but Donald pushed him out of the way, "Sora," he started, "What were those things? The Rhapsodies? Oh-" He looked behind him; the Heartless he had been hitting on the head must have gotten bored and disappeared on its own.

"They're supposed to be some other part of a person, some part of their hearts, but we're not sure yet. The new member of the Organization, Anixens, who is actually Sienna's Nobody, can make the change."

"Slow down!" Goofy said, clutching his head. "The Organization's back?!"

Sora laughed. "We've got a lot to tell you."

Kairi smiled and waved at the two, but then gave Sora a stern look, and glanced back at their boats. "You'll have to tell them on our way to the Big Island, because it's still probably overrun by Rhapsodies."

Riku and Roxas, who had been watching the scene almost unblinkingly, were the first to head off towards the boats.

* * *

**Song's Shimmer: Staccato Park**

Dolan glanced at his watch; it was already five minutes to six at night. The mosquitos were probably out and biting him like they were having a feast, but he had already dropped the cake off at home, and Staccato Park was the only place he could ever get some peace and quiet in. When he let his azure eyes travel back up towards the, originally empty, park, he only cursed. "You again," he mumbled.

The girl with the dark skin and the feathers in her hair turned toward him, and Dolan cursed to himself; obviously she had an amazing sense of hearing. "My _name_ is Kasa," she told him. Obviously, this girl remembered him from earlier. It was her fault, though; she was the one who was too busy with her head in the clouds to notice Dolan.

"That's nice, because your personal profile is exactly what I need right now." He was sure to speak softly, just to see if Kasa could actually hear him or if she just _knew_ that he was saying something rude. His eyes flickered across the park. "What are you doing here anyway? Babysitting for an invisible kid?"

Kasa scoffed. "For your information, this is where I come to think. But usually I'm here at midday..." she sighed. Dolan knew how that worked; you had somewhere to go but were interrupted by somebody. Still, he felt obligated to answer Kasa.

"I come here to think, too," he glanced up again, "I come at night." Suddenly realizing that he was making conversation with a perfect stranger, he shook his head as Kasa took a seat on the swing to the left of him, with one empty swing on her left side. "Don't you have anything better to do than annoy the crap out of me?"

"If you come here to think and so do I, live and let think, okay?" Kasa snapped, but in moments all signs of anger were gone from her face as she closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air, her mouth curling into a soft smile.

"Who are you, Pocohontas?" Dolan asked.

Before Kasa could answer, another noise rang through the soundless park. Both of their heads turned towards the source of the noise, and they saw a boy with blond hair and gray eyes, rather tall, parking his bike at the nearby bench. Dolan sighed; it was that boy from the bakery; his name was Blaise. Just what he needed; a confused girl and a 'pocket-full-of-sunshine' boy to disrupt his thinking time.

"Kasa," the boy said, smiling, "you were in my fourth hour class, remember?"

Kasa nodded thoughtfully, "Right, Geometry."

"Shut up and let me think." Dolan commanded them, immitating Kasa as he closed his eyes and tried to block them out.

"You two come to think here, too?" Blaise asked, scratching the back of his head. "No wonder I've never run into you before. I usually come here to relax at the break of dawn before I start work." Dolan could think of nothing except that this boy was way too sociable as always. "Are you two going out?"

"No," Kasa said too quickly, "he's a jerk and I don't even know his name. We're just... united by a common goal."

"My name's Dolan," he finally said, opening his eyes and flipping his purple hair out of his eyes, hoping to intimidate them as well as he could with a two-eyed stare. Blaise, when he was finished locking up his bike, took the seat on the swing to the left of Kasa.

There was a moment of silence as they all just sat and relaxed until Kasa opened her eyes and glanced at the setting sun. "Sometimes," she admitted, "when I see the sun setting in this world, I feel like it's all going to end."

"Actually," Dolan said silently, not opening his eyes, "me, too."

"I never really thought about it," Blaise mentioned, "but now that you bring it up, it kind of does." He suddenly twisted his face into an unrecognizeable expression. "Funny- the sunrise and the sunset are supposed to look the same. Somehow, the sunset looks a little less... _magical_ than the sunrise."

Dolan's eyes snapped open and looked at Blaise with slight fury, "Says you."

"I like it the best when it's in the center of the sky." Kasa laughed.

Suddenly, they heard moving in the bushes behind the swings. All of them shot upright and looked; Song's Shimmer had a coyote problem lately, vicious coyotes, at that. And that wasn't even to mention the missing teenagers.

As they all left their swings, none of them could have predicted what they saw next. What crawled out of the bushes had, in fact, crawled out from between the large trees. It was gigantic, slightly humanoid with glowing purple eyes, its body swirling black and red with two odd symbols over its eyes, and _reaching out for them_.

Kasa and Dolan, the two shorter ones, backed up behind Blaise, who was shielding his face with his hands. They were too afraid to question what was in front of them, too afraid to think of what was going to happen to them. Before they could vocalize anything at all, flashes of light filled their hands.

* * *

**Twilight Town: The Sandlot**

Cora sighed; she had destroyed the last Rhapsody she could find. She would have been more surprised if she didn't lose half of her body weight with all the work she did than she would have been if another Rhapsody appeared. What surprised her more, however, was probably that nobody had left their houses since the Rhapsody attack. Maybe they were threatened by the Rhapsodies, or maybe it was a bad day to go outside.

She could only thank whoever's up there that Twilight Town was safe, and no matter what, she would have somewhere to go back to once everything was over. That was the most important thing to her.

Or was it?

"Having second thoughts, Cora?" an all too familiar voice pierced through the air. This time, Cora flinched; she thought that she had gotten rid of Thomas the last time that they had talked, just a few minutes before midnight the day before. Of course, there was no point for her to try to lie to Thomas; he could spot a liar a mile away.

"What do you want?" she asked, her golden brown eyes following Thomas's forest green ones as he crossed her to sit next to her. He was the one heading the Organization, trying to dump the worlds into darkness. _Why wasn't she fighting him_? Oh, right- because she knew that she couldn't win.

"I can't celebrate our anniversary? I would have brought champagne, but I'm a little preoccupied." He smiled something all too familiar to Cora.

"The anniversary of your meeting me and dragging me into the darkness? In case you haven't noticed, I have no darkness in my heart. At least, I didn't, until you brought me into the darkness." Finally, something ticked in her head. "Whoa," she said, looking towards Thomas, "If I got darkness in my heart before you tried to use me to open the door to Kingdom Hearts, how could you...?"

Thomas sat down next to her on the bench, laughing, before he took her chin by his forefinger and held her head up for a moment. "I couldn't." He then let go, as if leaving a moment for Cora to figure it out. "You wouldn't have been able to open the door. It was a setup to bring their hearts to me, part of the plan. I made you unconsciously open it up simply with your keyblade. There are many ways to manipulate a person as a Heartless, you know."

Cora's stomach turned over; she had no idea that he had used her when she was unconscious like a puppet. But he was good; she could have never guessed that it was a setup to lure in the keyblade wielders.

It was his intelligence that had persuaded Cora to go with him.

"There was a slight miscalculation as to the threat of that Nobody-bringer, but that..." he lifted his hand and flexed his fingers like a cat flexing its claws, "was taken care of." **Author's Note: I realize now that I'm constantly comparing him to a cat. I think I'll have some fun with that later. xD**

"You took away her heart deliberately, didn't you?" Cora asked, "You knew that her power would change with her transformation into a Nobody, and you spent the whole year researching it." She glanced back at him, and he put his muscular arms behind his red and black streaked hair, that reminded Cora faintly of the Rhapsodies.

Thomas raised an eyebrow, smirking lazily, "Bright as always. We still need you at the Organization, if you've come to your senses yet." Apparently, he still remembered their conversation from the night before.

Cora shook her head. "You don't need me there."

Thomas smiled now, unblinking as he looked at Cora. "Actually, I promised the Organization hearts if they carried out their tasks." Cora put her hand to her heart just for the reassurance; she forgot completely about her 'special ability' and why she even had it. If she still had it after her heart became tainted, it probably had nothing to do with her being a Princess of Heart. "And plus, I sort of miss you in the darkness. The Heartless don't make for good conversation."

This time, Cora grinned. Thomas was a sadistic, sly and scary Heartless, but he did always know how to persuade someone. Cora, however, shook her head. "Find someone else to talk to, Thomas."

Thomas smiled, admitting defeat, but probably not for long. As he stood up, his hand brushed against her cheek, and he disappeared into a swirling vortex of purple and black darkness. Much to her misfortune, she heard a Rhapsody as she looked to her left, chasing after someone on a skateboard.

"Hayner," Cora whined angrily. Though, it was her fault; apparently, she hadn't gotten rid of all of the Rhapsodies quite yet.

* * *

**Destiny Islands: The Big Island**

"So much happened," Goofy remarked as he readied his shield, all of them immediately bombarded by Rhapsodies. It frightened Sora to think that they had probably stolen hearts already, because they had seen well over one hundred Rhapsodies by then. He didn't even _want_ to imagine how bad the other worlds were so far.

"But Sienna has a Nobody out there," Roxas said, determined, "and I'm going to find her and save her from the Organization no matter what." He was beginning to show Sora-like qualities in him, which made both Kairi and Riku chuckle slightly.

"I don't think she needs saving if she hasn't tried to escape for a whole year," Donald said, sending a Thunder attack, which just barely damaged the Rhapsodies, "if Sienna was as strong as you guys say she was.

"Don't refer to her in past tense," Roxas warned him, "not when she's still out there somewhere."

"Did Sora mention that they were in _love_?" Kairi giggled, the last of the Rhapsodies that surrounded them as they entered the bay disappeared. Goofy put his hands over his mouth and Donald just cocked his head to the side. Something told Kairi, Riku and Roxas that working with these guys would be a pain in the ass, but at least it would be a fun pain in the ass.

"Uh, guys?" Goofy asked as they ran down the clay path, destroying as many Rhapsodies as they could on their way. "Isn't the big island... big?"

"Your point?" Roxas asked, who was already a little annoyed of him.

"I mean, won't it take a long time to get rid of all these here Rhapsodies?"

Sora, Kairi, Roxas and Riku all stopped and looked at each other, and then back at Goofy and Donald. "Yes."

* * *

**Author's Note: Those scenes with Kasa, Dolan and Blaise? Those scenes with Cora and Thomas? They all write themselves. xD I have a feeling now that Donald and Goofy are finally in the picture, things are gonna get fun. And a bit more crowded, but just wait until Kasa, Dolan and Blaise are thrusted into the picture. x3 Please review!**


	6. Wait

CHAPTER SIX:

_Wait_

* * *

**Author's Note: Here it is, chapter six. Sorry it took so long to get up, to whoever out there is actually reading this. xD So, if you couldn't guess, Kasa, Dolan and Blaise were just confronted by their first Rhapsody, Cora accidentally left one running around in Twilight Town and now it's after Hayner, and Goofy and Donald are back, helping to exterminate the Rhapsodies in the Big Island of Destiny Islands. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Twilight Town: Tram Commons**

Cora threw her keyblade in a boomerang-like fashion, a move that she had learned directly from Thomas. She would have mentally reprimanded herself under any other circumstance, but she had to get it away from Hayner somehow. He barely knew a thing about the Heartless and Nobodies, but he had no idea about Rhapsodies.

The Rhapsody, barely flicked by Midday Moments, wrenched it's hammer-shaped head towards Cora, and threw it's lion-sized body into motion. "Never seen you before," Cora mumbled, catching her keyblade by the handle and jumping backwards to avoid a swipe of its claws.

Its paw, however, let out a reverb that knocked her backward a few feet, and she slid on the pavement.

"Cora, what's going on?" Hayner asked impatiently, his hands on his knees as he bent over to catch his breath.

"Been any missing people around here lately?" Cora asked, dodging out of the way of another swipe as the beast of a Rhapsody lunged at her, "This is probably one of them."

"_What_?" asked Hayner.

"It's not important," Cora finally decided, not exactly ready to give him a run-down of everything they had learned that day, "I just need to get rid of this. He's a Rhapsody-" she was knocked back by another reverb, "Like a Heartless or a Nobody, but I think he's the last here. Don't worry."

"I can help!" Hayner decided quickly. He bent down and grabbed something that looked like a rock, and Cora bit her lower lip, she was too late to tell him to stop. He chucked the rock at the Rhapsody, causing it to glare at Hayner and slowly advanced towards him, like a panther on the prowl. **Author's Note: That rock throwing thing was a reference to my other fic, The Chances you Never Took. xD**

"Hayner you idiot," Cora mumbled, and jerked her head to the side to flip her bangs out of her face as she darted forward with Midday Moments held in her tight grip. Just as the Rhapsody lifted its paw to swipe at Hayner, she knocked it back with her keyblade and kicked its gut, sending it flying backward. "Run!" she shouted to him.

Hayner said nothing else but turned around and ran backwards, a worried look on his face. It was natural for him to be worried; in the year of school that Cora and Umeko had had with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, they became fast friends. It would be a shame to lose a friend to a big puma/hammerhead shark-like creature.

Suddenly, the Rhapsody threw its head back and let out a roar, something between that of a lion and a screech of a bat. Surrounding the Rhapsody were at least ten Creeper Nobodies. Cora's hand dropped as her eyes widened. "No," she murmured, "you can summon Nobodies, too?! What _can't_ you do?"

Much to her surprise, the Rhapsody _smirked_ at her, and spoke in a low and drawing tone, "Help the Organization and you won't have to worry about Nobodies, Heartless or Rhapsodies ever again."

That wasn't just any voice, that was _Xemnas_.

"You..." Cora raised an eyebrow, not sure how to react. Her right hand squoze Midday Moments a little tighter as she waited for the answer to flow into her mind like it usually did. Nothing, but that was no surprise; nothing made sense lately.

"It is Xemnas... _recruiting_. You're about to destroy a Rhapsody I had created especially for speaking through to you, Cora."

Cora's raised eyebrow now furrowed on her forehead, not sure if she should have been believing what she saw. "That only leaves me with about a hundred questions," Cora murmured, "If you're recruiting for Thomas, I don't want to hear about it."

"Why are you running away from where you belong, Cora?"

_Well, that was below the belt_, Cora decided to herself. Since when did she _belong_ in the darkness? Last she checked, she was a Princess of Heart. "Before Thomas dragged me into the darkness," she began, "I had a one hundred percent pure heart. If it's anyone's fault that I belong in the darkness, it's his."

"Not from what I heard," Xemnas's voice through the Rhapsody spoke, "Thomas informed me that you went with him willingly into the Darkness, seeking to control your unique abilities and strengthen your heart from the Heartless." The Rhapsodies tail was slowly wagging back and forth, the end of it, Cora noticed, equipped with a fiery black flame as opposed to a bundle of fur like a lion's.

Cora brought down her keyblade, confused again. How much had Thomas _told_ him? "How long have you two been working together?" she demanded instead, her grip not loosening although the keyblade was at her side.

"Shortly before Sora and his friends learned that Thomas existed at all." The Rhapsody smiled again, probably noticing Cora's slight shaking. "Are you afriad, Cora?" he asked the girl, softer, "Because, for the sake of your friends, you should be."

This time, it was Cora's turn to be derogative. "First of all, they're not my friends, and secondly, I just can't take you seriously with a tail." The Rhapsody did not move at all as Cora brought her keyblade back up and charged at him, focusing all of her energy into her forearms. Just as she slashed down with Midday Moments, the Rhapsody disappeared, but Xemnas's voice lingered for one last line.

"Thomas will have you soon enough, Cora."

Cora sighed, straightening herself back up. At least all of the Rhapsodies were out of Twilight Town.

She took a look at what was surrounding her: Creepers.

"Nobodies are somehow a relief after all that," Cora muttered, and ran up to destroy them all in just a few fell sweeps of Midday Moments. She admitted that she missed her usual keyblade, Smoke on the Water, made with a keychain that her father had given her, especially when Midday Moments was rather weak, whether or not it was the only keychain that could destroy Rhapsodies.

"But why was he after Hayner?" Cora mused aloud as she slayed the final Creeper, which actually managed to hit her in the back of the left leg. "Probably to catch my attention," she decided, shrugging it off. The Organization never really did play fair.

* * *

**Destiny Islands: The Big Island**

"I think..." Roxas gasped, falling back into the large green field, gasping heavily, "that was the last one." He looked towards Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy, all of which were struggling to catch their breath.

"If it wasn't..." Kairi sighed, "then maybe I do need more practice, after all."

"At least the sunset's purdy," Goofy mentioned tiredly, even him without enough energy to display that usual-Goofy-pep, or at least say something stupid to make the rest of the group laugh. Instead, Donald just nodded in agreement, without the energy to mock Goofy in any way.

"Sunset?" Sora asked, jerking his head up. He hadn't even noticed how long they had been destroying Rhapsodies. Riku's head jerked up in response, and Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Roxas mimicked them.

"Cora," Kairi said, "we have to go back and pick her up."

"_Then_ we should go to Hollow Bastion to see if they've learned anything else about the Rhapsodies," Sora said, "because I'm beat. I don't think I can go through ten or twelve more worlds if they're like_ that_." He stood up, and, of course, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Riku and Kairi all followed him up. It was a long walk to the Gummi Ship, but nothing could be worse than all of the Rhapsodies they had to fight at Destiny Islands.

"You know," Kairi said softly as they reached the Gummi Ship, "We were able to save Destiny Islands and maybe Twilight Town alright, but the other worlds have got to be _flooded_ by now. And they can always send Rhapsodies back here."

"Optimistic, aren't we?" Roxas asked, but Riku shoved him lightly on the shoulder and pointed up at the sky. This caught everyone's attention, and one particular star, barely there due to the bright sun still half in the sky, was blinking out.

"Damn it," Roxas mumbled, "we've got to get to it!"

They all climbed into the Gummi Ship, and Sora headed straight for the scanners. Once he finally reached a world he hadn't seen before on the LCD screen, the one blinking DANGER, he shouted, "It's called Song's Shimmer. We probably won't be able to get all of the Rhapsodies out, but this has got to be the work of a big Heartless... or Rhapsody. We can at least get rid of that one," he said.

"What about Cora?" Roxas asked as they all sat down in the largest section of the Gummi Ship. Riku was with them this time, as Goofy and Donald took over the controls for the weapons, their specialty.

"She can wait."

* * *

**Song's Shimmer: Staccato Park**

"What is this?" Kasa asked quietly, looking down at the large key-shaped object that had appeared in her hand. It was metallic and plain-looking from the handle up, a light magenta in color. The tip of the keyblade, the key part, held small engraved words, reading _One Empty Sleep_. Was that what that thing was called?

"How am I supposed to know?" Dolan called back, his purple hair flying in all different directions around him from the intense wind that this fan-like creature was creating. He, too, was carrying a giant key, except his was a metallic red, and the words at the tip of his read, _One Nightmare_.

"I think," Blaise called as the creature got closer, causing their eyes to close to stop them from drying out. The creature was large and frightening, its hands shaped like fans and its legs thick like an elephant's. It's head was shaped like a potato, and its large, bug-like eyes were glowing purple. "I think we have to fight it with these."

"Are you crazy?" Kasa shouted over the wind, "That could be animal abuse!"

"Does this look like a kitten to you?" Dolan asked, shaking her shoulder with one hand and pointing at the giant moving windmill with the other one. Kasa scowled and shook her head; of course not, but it wan't exactly a past time of hers to hurt a living creature. She wasn't even sure about how she was supposed to fight this thing. **Author's Note: And the disembodied voice says: Press X. xD**

"Let's not waste time finding out," Blaise said surprisingly loudly, gripping his milky white keyblade. At the top of his, etched in golden letters, were the words, _One Dream_. He gripped the key as if he had fought with it a thousand times before in his life, and charged at the creature. As it dipped its fan-like hand down, the petals traveling clockwise, he used the key to slash at it counterclockwise, and then pounded his hand a few more times.

The creature threw its hand back and knocked at Blaise with the other one, sending him flying backwards. "No way, you're not having all the fun," Dolan mumbled, gripping his crimson key weapon in both of his hands and charging to attack the fan hand with his own key. He managed to not get himself thrown back, but he was knocked around a little bit from the wind.

Kasa, however, stood where she was, gripping her wrist uncomfortably. As Dolan was thrown back for the first time and Blaise charged forward to fight the creature, Kasa sighed and pointed her weapon at it. "Sorry," she murmured uncomfortably as she ran up to the creature (not very fast because her legs were so short), and jumped up as high as she could, slashing the creature in the stomach.

Wracked, it stumbled back, and Blaise, Dolan and Kasa all stood in front of it, gripping their weapons tighter in earnest. As the large, thirteen-foot creature fell forward, it disappeared, leaving nothing but a memory. "That was so..." Blaise began.

"Ominous?" Kasa asked. Dolan and Blaise nodded. "You know what's more ominous?" she asked. They both shook their head. "The other little monsters surrounding us." Surrounding them were more black and red swirling creatures, at least ten, that looked almost like full-grown cats. She glared at Dolan briefly. "Still not animal abuse?"

Suddenly, one of the cats' purple eyes flashed, and it pounced at Kasa, its teeth suddenly extending to razor sharp knives. Dolan could only laugh as he watched her knock it back, obviously not having to answer her question.

* * *

**Twilight Town: The Usual Spot**

The Rhapsodies in Twilight Town were completely gone. In fact, they had been for quite a long time. Cora, however, was sitting in The Usual Spot with her head resting in her hands, thinking for quite some time. She got a lot of thinking done, as well, until Pence came into the spot. Cora was forced to tell him _everything_.

"I know you told me that Thomas was into the darkness," Pence said at the tail-end of their conversation, "but I didn't know that he would try to drag you back in, even after all of that. Why?" he asked, licking a sea-salt ice cream.

"Apparently, I can create hearts for the Organization," Cora said, shaking her head. This wasn't the first time she had had a one on one conversation with Pence; he was often the only one that she could talk to when it came to school and technology. Olette sometimes came in handy, but it was mostly Pence who she could hold an intelligent conversation with.

"So, you're pretty much what he promised the Organization if they helped him darken up the world?" He shook his head and licked his ice cream. "Sounds like you're more involved in this than you think you are."

Cora turned her head to look at him, "How do you figure?"

"Well, it's not directly your problem, and I can see why you want Umeko back. Hell, we all want her back. But if you think about it, if you didn't have this power, he wouldn't have anything to promise the Organization, and these... Rhapsodies would have never been discovered. So the Organization wouldn't have been looking around Twilight Town for you, Umeko would have never gone after them and gotten herself captured."

"Great." Cora said after a moment of silence. "So everything's my fault?"

"Not directly. And not by choice. If that makes a difference." Pence said, now looking at his ice cream. Usually, he was good at helping Cora feel better, but he couldn't see how anyone could feel better after all that.

"Somewhat." Cora finally said. "I just want to know what's taking them so long to come and get me." _They didn't... forget, did they?_ Cora asked herself briefly, before shaking her head. _They're not that stupid. And who cares if they did? They're more of Umeko's friends than my own, anyway._

"You don't feel like you fit in, do you?" Pence asked, causing his friend to look back up at him with an incredulous look on her face. Pence chuckled and licked his ice cream again. "Don't give me that look, you were the same way with us. Remember? It took Olette, Hayner and me a lot of effort to convince you that we're your friends."

Cora brought her knees up to her face and hugged them to her chest. "Am I really that predictable?"

Pence laughed and handed her an ice cream.

* * *

**Song's Shimmer: Crescendo Streets**

"This town is so..." Donald started, looking around but gripping his staff hard. Obviously, somebody was worried about more Rhapsodies, which was understandable for someone who had spent years fighting the Heartless and one fighting Nobodies.

"Normal," Goofy finished, much more relaxed and loose with his shield.

"Why would they be after such an average world?" Sora asked, his keyblade gone and his hands resting behind his head as they walked the empty streets. The sun had now completely set, and gave the park they were nearing an almost eerie look to it. It was true that most other worlds they had to save had a special asset to them, but what was so interesting about this one?

"Well, if there's nothing special about the world..." Riku put his hand to his chin in concentration, and then brought it out and snapped. "Maybe something about the people in it. Destiny Islands wasn't that interesting, but you, Kairi and I are all keyblade wielders."

"You think this world has keyblade wielders?" Kairi asked as they entered the park.

Standing in the middle of a crowd of cat-shaped Rhapsodies were three figures, one of them a short Native American girl, the other two tall boys. The girl had feathers in her dark brown hair, which was half up in pigtails, and almost black eyes. The boy had longish purple hair and an odd blue color for his eyes, and the tallest boy almost looked like a surfer with his tan skin, golden hair and gray eyes, but he was wearing some kind of a shop uniform.

But mostly, they were _all carrying keyblades_.

"Fira!" Sora shouted, and Roxas immitated him, both of their keyblades knocking back the Rhapsodies. Kairi, Riku, Donald and Goofy all ran towards the remaining Rhapsodies and destroyed them fast, so used to all of the Rhapsodies they had gotten rid of in Destiny Islands, that it didn't seem as hard for some reason.

"You two," Riku said, walking up to the three teenagers, "what do you know about the Rhapsodies?"

"Rhapsodies?" the blond boy asked, "Is that what those are?"

"Then what are these?" the girl asked, holding up her keyblade, which was an odd, shiny metallic pink. It had no keychain on it, so it was no different from Sora's Kingdom Key, but it moreso resembled the purple-haired boy's red one and the blond boy's white one. "And why are yours all the same?"

"These are _keyblades_, the fight the Rhapsodies. They also fight Heartless and Nobodies. And all of ours are the same because we have these keychains," Kairi lifted the Midday Moments keychain on the end of her keyblade, "and they're the only ones that can fight the Rhapsodies." She smiled at them.

Kasa, however, shook her head, "We don't have any keychains, and we must have gotten rid of ten of those... _Rhapsodies_ by now."

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Donald and Goofy all stared stupidly at the three of them. "We should go pick up Cora. She's a friend of ours, and you three should come with us," Sora said, "we'll explain everything on the way... and maybe you guys could explain something to us, too, like _how you got those keyblades_."

* * *

**Twilight Town: The Usual Spot**

Cora tossed away her popsicle stick and smiled at Pence. "It's getting late, and I know how strict your parents are." She gave him a good-bye hug and he wished her good luck as she walked out. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas still hadn't come back to Twilight Town, and she was seriously believing that she had been forgotten.

As she walked out of The Usual Spot and through the alley, she tried to be extremely careful of shadows; for some reason, she thought that if she even walked towards the darkness, Thomas would come out and try to drag her in again.

"Is that really a bad thing?" Cora asked, but was interrupted as something that probably would come out of the darkness _did_. At least seven Knights and two Fat Bandits appeared, and the newly installed defensive systems activated themselves. "Just you?" she asked, Midday Moments returning to her hands.

The fight was short and sweet, or at least Cora would like to believe, considering she had destroyed at least a couple hundred Rhapsodies that day. It was interesting, because Anixens probably hadn't created that many Rhapsodies, which meant that these guys stole hearts a lot faster than the Heartless.

She wondered faintly how many people had already lost their hearts.

Finally, as she made it out to the train station, she could feel the telltale wind of the Gummi Ship landing and heard the engine quiet down. Cora wanted to be extremely confused when a dog on two feet holding a shield, a duck holding a staff, and three kids she had never seen before walk out right after Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas, but somehow, she expected something like that.

"So you didn't forget?" Cora asked. In a moment, Roxas opened his mouth to speak, but instead, Cora spoke again, surveying the three new keyblade wielders closely. "Who are they?" Cora asked.

"Kasa, Blaise and... Dolan? I think?" Sora asked, looking towards the purple haired boy who nodded slowly. "We just found them in this world called Song's Shimmer. It was being taken over, so we had to save them. That's what took us so long. But their keyblades can attack the Rhapsodies! We were thinking if Cid could find out what's up with their keyblades, he might be able to make _all_ of our keychains able to hurt the Rhapsodies."

Cora nodded slowly. "Sounds good," she said, "Cloud said that they've got something ready for us when we get there, too, so we should be on our way." As she walked into the Gummi Ship, she couldn't help but to smile and think, _They didn't forget about me._

**Author's Note: Well, there we are, chapter six. Can't believe we're this far already and only one full day has passed. So this fanfiction may be longer than the last one, I'm not sure yet. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Please review. :3**


	7. Kawaita Jikan no Nakade

CHAPTER SEVEN:

_Kawaita Jikan no Nakade_

_(Amidst this Drop of Time Gone Dry)_

* * *

**Author's Note: Alrighty, this chapter was a little longer than I expected, but that's because in the last couple of chapters I'd forgotten about Umeko and Axel, but that's just because so much was happening with Cora, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas. Oh, and Dolan, Blaise and Kasa, too. Especially now that Donald and Goofy are in the picture. Also, there'll be a few paragraphs of Nix, if you've wondered what's happened to her. Please read and review!**

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Soundless Prison**

Now _I'm_ starting to get antsy," Axel complained, sitting in the same exact place that he had been the entire day. "You still haven't found a way out of here?" he asked Umeko, barely turning his head, "You're the one with the keyblade."

"I thought _you_ were going to find a way out of here," Umeko mumbled, "you said that you need to either create a portal from the outside or open it from the outside? Either way, we _can't get out from the inside_. Seems your Organization peers are smarter than you think," she murmured, burying her face in her knees.

Axel said nothing, but glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Eleven-thirty. 'S almost been a whole day since we've been here." As Axel was about to go on, both him and Umeko were distracted by the light clunk-ing of feet across the Soundless Prison. Umeko sighed, relieved to see that it was, once again, only Coy.

He had been down there twice already that day, the second visit he mostly listened to Umeko. Being entirely mute, he was a great listener; what's more, he even sounded genuinely _interested_ in what she was saying. It was obvious that he wasn't that interested in working for the Organization, but he didn't have that much of a choice. Underneath all the instinct, the other Rhapsody guards, changed into strange forms of Rhapsodies, probably didn't want to be doing what they were, either.

"Hey, Coy," Umeko said, standing, her legs groggy from sitting for a long time. Coy gave her a smile, the Nobody and Heartless symbols over his eyes wrinkling slightly. When Coy gave an expression, he gave it his all; his smile always extended ear-to-ear and showed in his eyes, his curious look was always accompanied by wide eyes and open ears, and his disappointed looks always held worried eyebrows and a slight bite of the lip.

For a Rhapsody, this kid was special.

Axel, however, just waved his greeting. "So you have three shifts during the day?" Umeko asked the silent boy. He nodded, still smiling, but a little lighter this time. "I'll bet Xemnas is all up in all the Rhapsody's asses since it's your first day, huh?" The boy nodded again, one side of his lips raising a little higher than the other as he gave a slight roll of his eyes.

"How." Axel asked, hitting his head against the stone prison wall in slight frustration. "Can." He hit his head against the wall once more. "You." Hit. "Hold." Hit. "A." Hit. "Conversation." Hit. "With." Hit. "A." Hit. "_Mute_?!" Axel looked like he was about to rip his hair off. Obviously, he didn't do well in confinement.

Umeko and Coy, though Coy looked through bars, looked at the Nobody in confusion. "You talk to him?" Umeko asked, and Axel his his head against the wall again. Obviously, she didn't get it. Either that, or Axel didn't.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House**

"You came at just the right time," Cloud announced after a moment or two of Sora, Kairi, Riku, Roxas, Donald, Goofy, Blaise, Dolan, Kasa and Cora all sitting in the living room, competing for space. Kasa, in fact, was trying to get _out_ of the crowd of everyone sitting down, the tiniest and sucked up easily into the other nine. "We just got a lot of info on these Rhapsodies, and filled up this small book. We made a couple of copies."

Cloud handed Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas and Cora each a small, blue book. As Cora opened it up and thumbed through it, she came across information of all these different Rhapsodies, some she had never seen. _That's right_, Cora thought, _Cloud said that every Rhapsody had knowledge of the other Rhapsodies linked directly to their DNA._

"Great," Cora said softly and flipped through the pages. The small cat Rhapsodies she had faught were called Incisors, which made sense, because their teeth grew to the size of steak knives. The ones that looked simliar to Shadows, but larger and differently colored, were called Grabbers. "What about that hammerhead one?" she mumbled to herself, and flipped towards the back. So there _were_ more than one. Under the description, it said they were some of the smartest of Rhapsodies, just under the human-form. Hammerheads. Original.

Merlin, however, didn't seem to be as calm and collected as Cloud, Aerith, Leon and even Yuffie were. He walked in the room, making a huge fuss, and demanding that Kasa, Dolan and Blaise show him their keyblades so he could find out what ingredient it was that made a weapon able to kill a Rhapsody.

"I still don't understand a lot," Kasa said quietly, thinking back to the ride on the Gummi Ship where they were told as much as they had time for, "but I take it you guys want us to help you fight the Rhapsodies."

"Seems like your world was in danger," Riku mentioned, his arms crossed over his chest as he raised an eyebrow at his new, short friend, "If you don't help us get rid of all the Rhapsodies, Song's Shimmer might be swallowed up."

"Forget Song's Shimmer," Donald said, putting one winged finger into the air. **Author's Note: I don't understand how, but he has fingers.** "The whole Light Realm is in danger thanks to that Organization XIII!"

"Not just Organization XIII," Cora murmured, quiet and thoughtful as usual, "It's not them that want the world doused in darkness. That's just so they can get their end of the bargain. It's Thomas that wants the dark."

"What?" Sora asked, "What do you know about what he promised the Organization?"

"Yeah, Cora?" asked Riku, who scooted closer to her and watched her intently. It was difficult for Cora to hold anything in while looking at him; since Thomas had performed a spell on him, he had been bound to him and Cora for quite some time, and Riku and Cora got to know a lot about each other; she would not be able to lie to him.

"Thomas showed up at Twilight Town. He promised the Organization hearts, which I can give them." She looked at her palms; they looked completely normal to her. She still didn't understand why she was blessed- or cursed- with such a longed for power, but it was probably because she was the first choice to be the keyblade hero.

"Did you fight him?" Sora asked. Cora shook her head. "Why didn't you fight him?" he asked, impatiently.

This time, it was Cora's chance to snap at him. "I'm not strong enough to fight him. _None of us are strong enough to fight him_. Not yet. The best that any of you ever got on him was a scratch in the stomach, and he obviously recovered from that quickly enough to create a whole new plan. Besides." She paused. "He didn't want to fight, anyway."

The room was full of silence, until Cora noticed Dolan, the purple-haired blue-eyed boy, glaring at her. "What's your problem?" she asked quietly but coldly, a little sick of being looked down upon for the day.

Suddenly, the boy gave a smug smile. "I think we'll be friends."

Cora wasn't sure about how to react back, so she just looked forward again. "Lucid gem," Merlin called back to Cid, who had been hard at work with the team's keychains, nodding. He began to synthesize them with a box of lucid gems he, for some odd reason, kept underneath his desk by his feet. "What else can I do for you..." he counted for a moment, "ten before you head off to sleep?"

Sora, Riku, Roxas and Kairi thought back to the last time they had to spend the nights in Merlin's house, and shuddered almost on command and in perfect time. "Could you, uh, magic us up a few rooms of our own?" Sora asked bashfully.

"Of course, m'boy!" Merlin said, whipping out his long stick of a wand. With his free hand curled into a fist, he coughed into it, and then raised his wand high. "Hockety pockety wockety wack, abracabra dabra nack, open up, every wall, we've got to have enough room for all! Higitus, figitus, migitus mum, prestidigitonium!" This went on for at least a minute before finally, a hole appeared in the southern wall, opposite from the hallway that contained the Restoration Committee's rooms, **Author's Note: Which I totally made up just for convenience**, and twelve rooms were created along them.

"Twelve?" Cora asked, being the first to notice.

"In case you get your two friends back, darling!" he laughed a quick, 'ho ho ho!' and when to go check on Cid. Cora would never admit it for as long as she traveled with Sora and the others, but Merlin frightened her.

"Finally, some sleep," Kairi smiled, relieved and picking a room somewhere down the middle of the hallway. Cora sighed and picked one near the back; it baffled her to think of how long it might take for them to exterminate the Rhapsodies from all the worlds. Even if they did, Anixens would probably only make more. But by then, they would hopefully be strong enough to go to The Castle that Never Was and thwart the Organization.

It was too much to think about, Cora decided, as she pulled out her keyblade, back in its purest form as Cid was working with their keychains, and used her last bit of magic for the day to change her clothes to pajamas. Thomas may not have seemed it, but he was experience in both hand-to-hand combat and magic; he taught her a lot.

Maybe she was strong enough to fight him.

She thought nothing of it as she buried her head in the, surprisingly soft, pillow put at the top of her bed and tried her damndest to fall asleep.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Addled Impass**

Nix couldn't describe the feeling, or lack thereof, when she looked up at the Kingdom Hearts. It still floated above the castle, destroyed, yes, but beautiful nevertheless. In fact, she had heard that Ansem the Wise had died destroying this Kingdom Hearts... _somewhere_. Since she thought about it, a lot of the information she knew about the world, she just _knew_, with no help from the Organization.

"Beautiful even in its destruction," Saïx noted, "I thought I would find you here. I used to come here all the time."

"That's because you're in love with the night and the moon," Nix mentioned offhandedly, smiling even a little bit. "I just came here because I thought the view was nice; it's been a rather long day." Nix sighed.

Saïx nodded passively, his gaze fixed on the destroyed second Kingdom Hearts. "You must be tired, your first day on an Organization duty. Why don't you go to sleep?" Saïx asked the younger Nobody, who also fixed her gaze on the giant, heart-shaped moon in front of them, and thought for a second that she wouldn't answer.

"I should," she said, quieter, "I just can't get that boy from the meeting out of my mind."

This time, Saïx looked directly at her. "What interests you about him?"

"He seemed... in pain." She sighed. "If Rhapsodies are the living essence of a person's emotions, does that mean that emotions cause that much pain, as well? Why go after hearts of our own if that's what they do?"

"Hearts hurt," Saïx agreed, "I remember faintly, we all do. But hurt is not all they do. With hearts... extraordinary things can happen." Nix then looked up at him, smiling. She was never one to ask too many questions, but she was interested in what was happening, anybody would be. "Let me walk you to your room."

* * *

**Hollow Basion: Merlin's House, Cora's Room**

A knock on the door. Cora groaned; just as she was beginning to fall asleep. She was even having a pretty little semi-conscious dream about dragons. She stumbled upward and opened the door, and was shocked to see Riku walk in, still fully clothed, and sit on the side of her bed. "I thought you might have wanted to talk," he admitted.

Cora glanced at the small clock that Merlin had made on her wall. "I wouldn't have minded talking an hour or two ago, but this is okay." She sat next to Riku. "What'd you want to talk to me about?" she asked.

"Thomas," Riku started darkly. "He was trying to pull you back into the darkness, wasn't he?"

"Yeah," Cora said, "but I wouldn't fall for that," she reassured him. "Actually, I was thinking, that if he needs me to hold up his end of the bargain with Organization XIII, things would be a lot easier if I don't even think about it. Then, once the Organization realizes they've been played, they could destroy Thomas for me."

"Do you think they're strong enough?" Riku asked her.

"No," Cora admitted, "but they could weaken him."

"He's really that bad, huh?" Riku asked, getting off of the bed for a moment to stretch his legs, and then sitting back down. Obviously, he was just as tired as Cora, but much more sleepless than she.

"If he wasn't that bad, you probably wouldn't have had a problem breaking his mental bonds to you so you couldn't betray Sienna, huh?" Cora asked, and Riku nodded his agreement. "Anixens..." Cora voiced quietly. "I wonder if Roxas is really that interested in finding her. I wonder if Anixens and Sienna are anything alike."

"Well, I don't know. Naminé was a lot like Kairi, and Roxas is starting to be like Sora now."

"Naminé was born from Sora's body releasing Kairi's heart, so she's not technically Kairi's Nobody. Kairi can't have a Nobody because she's a Princess of Heart. And I think that Roxas is only acting like Sora because the situation lately calls for it."

"Suit yourself," Riku said, laughing, but only because he knew that Cora's logic, once again, outwitted his own. "What do you plan to do once we save the universe again?" Riku asked, genuinely interested.

"I'm going to Disney World." Cora smirked.

**The Next Day...**

"Here ya go," Cid said, distributing the keychains to Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas and Cora. "Just blended 'em with the lucid gems last night, they should be ready 'n rearin' to destroy those Rhapsodies for ya. Where do you plan on goin' next?" he asked, flicking the toothpick in his mouth to the other side.

"I was thinking we should split up," Sora said, standing up to his full height and ready to assume the position of 'leader' once again. "Donald, Goofy... Blaise and I'll go to Disney Castle so we can talk to King Mickey about everything that's going on. Then Riku, Cora and Dolan can all go to End of the World to see if you can release any worlds that have already been destroyed. You should be able to do that by killing off all the Rhapsodies there." Cora and Riku nodded in understanding; it made sense. The source of the worlds falling into the darkness was Kingdom Hearts, and once that was locked up, they returned. This time, the source of worlds disappearing would be the Rhapsodies; get rid of them, get rid of the problem. "And Kairi, Roxas, and Kasa, you three can go to Agrabah. It seems pretty dumped in darkness right now..." he mentioned, looking at Cid's computer screen.

"Why are you splitting all of us up?" Blaise asked quietly and politely.

"Because that way, each of you are with a group with someone with experience, so you can get some practice in on your way. We don't want you falling into the darkness- trust me, it's not fun." Sora recalled faintly the time when he had to take his own heart away to save Kairi and the other six Princesses of Heart. He was lucky enough to carry his memories into his Heartless form, but some were not.

"Why do we have to go to End of the World?" Cora asked seriously, raising an eyebrow. "That's in the Dark Realm. It's a lot more likely for us to find Thomas or another Organization member there. Aren't we avoiding them until we've destroyed all of the Rhapsodies?"

"It's gotta get done?" Sora asked, shrugging. "And you and Riku have both braved the darkness before, so you're least susceptible to it. I think that's the hardest one of the three of these, so I'm trusting you." Riku nodded; of course _he_ would blindly trust Sora.

Then again, Cora was slowly finding herself trusting Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas more than she ever thought she could.

"Alright, let's get a move on," Sora said, sticking his crown-shaped Ultima Weapon keychain on his keyblade. **Author's Note: Ultima Weapon changed in Kingdom Hearts I and II, so I just used the Kingdom Hearts II version of it, because it's more recent. ;** Everyone mimicked, and Cora let out a small sigh of relief at the sight of Smoke on the Water. Riku, Kairi and Roxas all seemed pleased to have Way to Dawn, Destiny Blade, Oathkeeper and Oblivion back, as well.

* * *

**End of the World: Gate to the Dark**

"I'll admit," Dolan said, crossing his unarmed arms across his chest and surveying the sea of emptiness before them, "this place is sort of spooky." He looked down at Cora and then straight forward at Riku, both of which were watching the sea just as closely as he was, if not a little closer, partly out of remembrance.

"Gate to the Dark," Riku sneered, "I wish that route straight to the destroyed Destiny Islands was still open, we could skip past all this."

"What do you mean?" Dolan asked, his eyebrows furrowing together. "It's just a sea, and... look," he tried dipping his foot into it, "it's like glass, you can even walk on it. What's so difficult about that?"

Cora and Riku actually managed to laugh at Dolan's naïvety; just wait until he saw his first Behemoth. "Nothing at all," Cora said whistfully, and began to lead the three of them towards the only walkable path there, the rest closed off by an invisible forcefield. The moment they reached a rock, stuck oddly in the middle of the sea, they found themselves in an entirely different place, one none of them recognized.

"Wh-where are we?" Dolan asked, his original tough facade completely gone.

"End of the World. A world carrying fragments of destroyed worlds, so far sucked into the darkness that even the closing of Kingdom Hearts couldn't bring them back." Riku said, pleased with having scared Dolan in the slightest. Before them, a gigantic, purplish Heartless that could have very well been a mammoth, charged towards them.

"And that," Cora began, pointing Smoke on the Water at the Heartless, "Is a Behemoth. One of the strongest Heartless out there. Still just a walkable ocean?" Cora laughed, not at all unnerved by the Heartless. She never was. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she didn't still carry the ability to control the Heartless, but she did fear that finding out would cause her fall back into the darkness, so she decided to beat it the old fashioned way.

"No problem," Dolan said, gulping. "I helped beat that big fan thing, remember?" he asked Riku, who was the one that he had told. In truth, it was Blaise who mostly defeated it, but he did help a considerable amount.

But he had never taken on a Heartless before.

* * *

**Disney Castle: The Library**

"Sora! Donald, and Goofy, too!" Queen Minnie said, looking both delighted and worried at the same time. Followed by her was Daisy, her expression simply worried. Her gaze would not leave Donald's at all. Obviously, she had been worried about him. "And your friend? What's your name?" Minnie asked, looking at the beach-boy.

"I'm Blaise, Your Majesty," Blaise said politely, bending down and kissing her hand/paw thing. Sora couldn't help but to admire this boy; he seemed to know exactly how to act around everyone. It took him a while to realize that he was supposed to _bow_ in front of the Queen and King, but Blaise had it all down already.

"He's another keyblade wielder!" Donald spat.

"Another one?" Daisy asked, now walking up next to Minnie, her worried features unchanging, "There are more keyblade wielders?"

"Two others, actually, Kasa and Dolan, too, but they're with everyone else," Sora said, "We're here to talk to the King- you see, a lot of trouble's been happening with these things called Rhapsodies, and-"

"He knows," Minnie said quietly.

"He knows?!" Donald, Goofy and Sora all exclaimed at once. How could he possibly know?

"The second the King learned that the Organization was revived by Hades, he's been keeping a watchful eye on them. He's had spies everywhere," Daisy informed them, "he knows almost as much about the new goals and member of the Organization as the Organization does themselves. He's already exterminated the Rhapsodies here at the castle, and he's off to go find an old friend of his who he thinks can help."

"That's a relief," Donald said, not quite ready to exterminate the Rhapsodies out of another world; he would still need a few years rest for that. **Author's Note: Notice how I emphasize how strong the Rhapsodies are; these guys are **_**pretty dayum strong**_**.**

"Someone that can help us win?" Sora asked. "Where did the King go? Did he tell you? Your Majesty?" Sora asked, trying to be as polite as possible when he looked down at the Mouse Queen, who nodded.

"He gave us a name, but no other information." She turned around and pulled out a green book from behind her, put it on the table next to her, and opened it up to a page which held a slip of paper that the King had stuck in there. She handed it to Sora. "The world is called Eventide Mountains. They raise Sages there, and one of their own was recently taken, they suspect, by the Organization."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Goofy said for everybody, excited.

"If you guys are going again," Daisy said over everyone, but didn't quite finish her sentence until after she gave Donald a quick kiss on the cheek, "promise me that you'll keep yourselves safe, okay?"

"We promise!" Sora, Donald and Goofy all said, but Blaise just nodded eagerly.

* * *

**Agrabah: Bazaar**

"Sora wasn't kidding when he said that this place was really dumped in the Darkness, huh?" Kasa asked, her voice shaking slightly, but gripping One Empty Sleep tightly in her left hand, ready for anything. The scenery before them, which might have originally been an Arabian market, was now doused in black, bubbling darkness, Rhapsodies and Heartless alike appearing from the very corners where the slightest shadows existed under the Arabian sun. There were even quite a few Nobodies, Berserkers, by the looks of it, surveying the area from on top of one of the abandoned stands.

"Sora?" a boy's voice asked, running towards the group. "Oh, I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else," he said to Roxas, and Roxas shook his head; it happened often. "But you three have keyblades; do you know Sora?"

"Yeah, we do," Roxas said, taking control of the group, "but he's busy right now, so we're here to get rid of all the Rhapsodies, and as many Heartless and Nobodies as we can. Your world isn't unlocked, is it?" he asked the boy warily.

He shook his head. "Rhapsodies? Is that what they're called?" He extended his hand, which Roxas shook earnestly. "My name's Aladdin. If you think it's bad here, you have to come to the Palace. I've been trying to get rid of them, but I can't take them all on my own. Maybe you and your two pretty friends can?"

Kairi smirked. "Flattery does get you somewhere. Of course we'll help."

Kairi probably wouldn't have said that if she got to agree _after_ she saw the Palace.

**Author's Note: There we are, sorry this one took a while to get up, but I'm really happy with this fanfiction so far; I still have so many ideas. Well, I'll see you next chapter, when we get to go into Eventide Mountains!**


	8. Kiss the Sun pt 1

CHAPTER EIGHT:

_Kiss the Sun pt. I  
_

**Author's Note: Chapter eight already, I feel like this fanfiction is just writing itself. I expect it to be a bit longer than the last one. I've had the ending planned for quite some time, but the filling in the sandwich of a fanfiction is starting to plan itself, so I'm happy. : D I know it must be hard to follow because now there are eight keyblade wielders plus Donald and Goofy, which is why I split them up.**

**If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I would be suing everyone who forgets to put disclaimers on their fanfictions. :D Except I wouldn't. xD**

* * *

**End of the World: Gate to the Dark**

"Aaghh!" Dolan screamed at the same time as the Behemoth roared, fading back into the darkness. Cora and Riku rushed over to Dolan, who had fallen down halfway through the fight, both thinking the same thing; two Behemoths in one day were not good fights for a beginner. Dolan was sprawled out on the ground, clutching his left leg, which carried a gashing, open wound that ripped through his jeans.

"Calm down," Riku said quietly, and then pulled out Way to Dawn, "Cura." But nothing had happened. "Crap, I used all of my magic on that Gravira on the Behemoth," he whispered. Cora, however, shrugged and pulled a hi-potion out of her shorts pocket.

"Here," she said, throwing the essence above his leg, and the wound healed up quickly. "If you want to lay low on these fights, there's usually only one Behemoth down here. It probably means that End of the World has gotten stronger."

"Just great," Dolan mumbled, rubbing a hand over his leg, disbelieving that it had just instantly been healed. "Listen here," he said, trying to regain his balance, "I know I'm doing this to save my home and all, but that's just the thing- I'm helping. If I'm destined because I'm a keyblade wielder or whatever, I actually _want to be some help_. Don't tell me to lay low on battles because I want to get this done, too."

Much to Dolan's surprise, Cora gave him an amused smile and grabbed his hand to pull him up. "That's the spirit," she said, and once he was upright, she had told him, "I agree, I think we're going to be friends."

Riku, however, was looking at the newly changed scenery, they were back at Gate to the Dark, or at least the end of it. "Well, we got through one of the most annoying parts of this world..." Riku said, "And what we have to do is go into the fragments of the world and destroy all of the Rhapsodies in them, every last one. That should revive them."

"And they're like pillars of light, so they'll be easy to find... but I swore that there was somewhere else before those..." Cora stopped as they all had been walking to survey what was in front of them. They looked like they were at the very bottom of the Grand Canyon, except much more breathtaking of a scenery. It was snowy and beautiful, bits of blue and purple sparkling on the inside of the walls and what might have been spider webs before them.

"I'm sort of glad that End of the World didn't disappear once Sora, Goofy and Donald saved the worlds the first time," Cora smiled, "because this is too pretty. But you have to wonder what it might have looked like if it wasn't used as a garbage dump for the other worlds."

"I think all it's made up of is unrestorable fragments of destroyed worlds. It probably wouldn't look like anything." Riku posed.

"I think you're right."

"Can we stop swapping ideas about what End of the World could have looked like and get fighting?" Dolan asked, tapping his left palm with theshaft of his keyblade, One Nightmare impatiently.

"Have it your way," Cora said, letting Smoke on the Water appear back on her hands, the blue and purple keyblade shining like gold. "I came and looked at this world last year. I think I remember the way all right."

* * *

**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"I can... honestly say that I've never even heard of this world. Have you?" Sora asked Donald and Goofy. Goofy shook his head, but Donald, who looked on the edge of his seat since they began on their way, finally spoke up.

"Eventide Mountains makes some of the best mages _ever_. The one who trained me even spent most of his life training on Eventide Mountains. It makes sense why the Organization would want someone from the Mountains to become a Rhapsody, because magic is controlled by the strength of ones heart, which is measured in emotions."

"Gawrsh, Donald," Goofy began, "you sure do know a lot about this magic stuff."

Donald narrowed his eyes, and then hit Goofy on the head with the top of his staff, Save the Queen. "Of course I know a lot about magic you dunderhead! I'm the King's head Mage!" His shouting was already giving Sora a headache. He had to take care of the weapon controls while the two of them were bickering.

"Is this it?" Sora finally shouted over the fight as he pointed to a floating world in front of them. It was characterized by several tall mountains, all of which were snowy on the top, and small houses dotting them. The colors reminded Sora of the sunset, somehow managing to make purple look amazing with pink, orange and yellow.

"That's it!" Donald said excitedly, "Land the ship, Sora, land the ship!"

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Sunset Summit**

"It's beautiful," Goofy breathed, looking around at the summit they were standing on. In front of them, the sun was just ready to set, and the world was sparkling with twilight colors, something Goofy never expected to see again in his whole life.

"It's always sunset up here," Donald explained, "the way the earth is designed, the sun is always surrounding this summit."

"That's interesting," Blaise began, who had been rather quiet the entire time, "that must mean that the world is always rotating along with its sun." Donald nodded at him. "So, all these worlds really are different, aren't they?" he asked them. Sora looked back at Donald and Goofy, both of which didn't really know how to answer him.

"Yeah. You've never traveled to other worlds before?" Sora asked, and Blaise shook his head; the only world he ever knew was his home, Song's Shimmer.

"Is my world characterized by the town I live in?" Blaise asked suddenly, and Sora nodded at him. It was odd how worlds were named, but they were usually named based on the part of them that _made_ them unique. "I wonder what's so interesting about it."

"We'll find that out," Donald remarked, "but first, we have to find the King!"

* * *

**Agrabah: The Palace, Third Staircase**

"This is ridiculous," Roxas hissed, destroying the last Rhapsody that he could find on the staircase they were on, which was only up to the fourth floor; there were still two more levels to go after the fourth. There actually weren't many Rhapsodies in the first three floors, but they could practically _taste_ the darkness coming from above them. "Why are there so many Rhapsodies in this world?"

"I think they're after the Sultan," Aladdin called back, swiping his saif madly at his newlyfound enemies. "I can't figure out why, though."

"They're trying to make strong Rhapsodies, aren't they?" Kairi asked, working with Kasa on a small crowd of Incisors, as Roxas and Aladdin began attacking a new kind of Rhapsody, which Kairi quickly looked up, that was called a Balance, which made sense, because it looked like a scale. Whenever one end of the scale was farther down than the other, it would spit out a bunch of different magic attacks.

"Yeah," Roxas responded, "most likely."

"And they're strongest based off of how emotional they are, which is why the Organization chose teenagers, right?"

This actually got a chuckle out of Roxas, "I never thought of it that way, but yeah?" He was knocked back slightly by a Blizzard attack, but caught himself and charged at the Balance with Oathkeeper and Oblivion at the same time as Aladdin knocked at it with his saif, and it disappeared, leaving them with some extra munny.

"Is the Sultan a very emotional person?"

Suddenly, all of the Rhapsodies in the staircase had been destroyed, and Aladdin regarded them all blankly. The monkey that had been hanging on his back, Abu, managed to squeak out something that sounded like an 'Uh-huh!' "Now that makes sense," Aladdin regarded, "we should get to the Sultan before we get the rest of the Rhapsodies!"

"Where's the Sultan?" Roxas asked hurriedly.

"Highest level, probably in his office." **Author's Note: I'm thinking of that room where he plays with all of those toy animals; it looks slightly like an office, but I'm not quite sure where it is.**

"You've been... awful quiet..." Kairi gasped as they ran throughout the palace, avoiding more Rhapsodies than they were attacking, and turned towards Kasa, who seemed to have trouble keeping up because of her short legs.

"Everything's just happened so fast," she said, her hands trembling on One Empty Sleep, "and... and I'm not a fighter, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to help you guys, because it's just _not something I do_!" They reached another staircase, and all Kairi could do was stare at her blankly; they had never seen a keyblade wielder that was so unwilling to fight.

"Just one more to go!" Aladdin called back, followed closely by Roxas. They could all see the number of Rhapsodies growing as they ran upwards, a sure sign that they were after the Sultan. "At least it's not Jafar again," Aladdin noted, and Abu answered with another quick and earnest 'uh-huh!'

Finally, it seemed, they made it to the last staircase, leading directly upwards to the Sultan's office. Although every step seemed to tire them out twice more than the previous one, they continued on their way, determined to not let Aladdin's world fall through the cracks to join the destroyed ones in End of the World.

Besides, Aladdin told Kasa and Kairi that they were pretty.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Soundless Prison**

"_On the seventy-fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seventy-four_... colored pencils?" Umeko asked Axel boredly. Axel was lying on the center of the prison cell with his arm over his forehead, listening to Umeko sing for the past two hours, something she obviously did when she was bored.

Axel shook his head. "You used colored pencils on thirty-nine, remember?"

"Right..." Umeko murmured, "_Seventy-four... rabbit feet. Seventy-three Gamecube games, seventy-two horror movies, seventy-three sea-salt ice creams, seventy-two octopi, seventy-one keyblade keychains, seventy-_"

"And a partridge in a pear tree." Axel finished for her, and Umeko hugged her knees to her chest once more. "It's summer. If you're going to sing about something, let's not sing about what your lover gave you on the _seventy-four days of Christmas_." Suddenly, they heard footsteps echo through the prison once more. "Speaking of lover..."

"Shut _up_." Umeko commanded him.

"Wait, I've got an idea," Axel said, standing up for the first time that day even though it was already half over. **Author's Note: How in all of Hell do they go to the **_**bathroom**_** in that prison?!** Coy, recognizable by the symbols on his face, his violet eyes and light brown hair, stopped by the cell.

"Hey, Coy," Axel began, and Coy tilted his head to the side; Axel never called him by his name. Ever. "Could you go bring Xemnas over here? And if he's not here, the highest rank up who is. _Please_?" he even gritted out.

Coy raised an eyebrow and glanced behind him at Umeko, who was shrugging and shaking her head; she didn't have any idea of what was going on, either. Still, Coy left, and Umeko pushed her dark blond hair behind her ears, as if that might help her see clearer. "Axel, what are you doing?" she asked.

"We can work as spies in the Organization. We can feed information to Sora and the others, tell them where the Organization is going to strike next. That way, we'll be out of this damn prison, able to wander how we want, and-"

"And take down the Organization from the inside-out!" Umeko whispered excitedly.

"When the time is right. If we do it too soon, we won't be able to give any information to Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas or Cora. Once we're sure that enough Rhapsodies are gone throughout the universe, we can work on its destruction. But for now, act as evil as you possibly can." He looked at Umeko quickly.

"Right. Evil." Umeko screwed up her face for a moment, and then said, while smirking, "_Rawr._"

Axel slapped a hand to his forehead. "You know what, on second thought, don't say a word at all."

There were more footsteps echoing through the Soundless Prison (which actually wasn't as soundless ever since the day before when they were imprisoned), and two figures appeared. Coy, as expected so he could continue surveying the prisoners (the ones who actually stayed silent), and a cloaked figure. In one fell motion, he brought his arms up and pulled his cloak back, small pink petals flying around as he did so.

Axel's jaw dropped open. "You're kidding."

* * *

**End of the World: World Terminus**

"What is it?" Dolan breathed tiredly. They had just made it out of the Giant Crevasse and into some platform that he did not recognize; all he saw was a pillar in the center that seemed to be made out of pure light. Part of him wanted desperately to touch it, the other part of him was screaming at him to turn back.

"It's a portal into the fragments of destroyed worlds. All that's left." Riku responded.

"Let's go in and get this over with," Cora said quickly, before she felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back and turning her towards him. "Something wrong?" she asked, narrowing her eyes; something told Riku that she wasn't in the mood.

"You alright?" he asked, "You've been acting sort of... cold."

"Me?" she asked, and then turned towards Dolan. Dolan first fixed his features with an angry expression, but then let his eyebrows relaxed and shrugged as he nodded; he did have sort of a bad attitude. "Well, what do you care?" Riku asked. "After this, you won't have to deal with me anymore, then."

Ouch. Riku could tell that this had hurt her. He didn't release his grip on her shoulder. "You know, I _am_ your friend. We all are. You can tell me anything." His seafoam eyes fixed themselves on Cora's dark golden brown ones, not letting them go. _Friends_? Really? Cora couldn't describe the sense of relief she felt, but she nodded.

"Yeah. Friends," grumbled Cora, though she was smiling. "We'll deal with that problem of yours after we get these worlds done with. Looks like only about three have been swallowed up right now."

"Problem," Riku repeated, laughing as they stepped through the light pillar.

The scenery changed almost instantly, and they found themselves in no place other than the second district of Traverse Town. "No way," Cora breathed, "Traverse Town's been swallowed up already?" She grasped Smoke on the Water a bit tighter. A crazy amount of Balances appeared with a few Incisors, and a new kind of Rhapsody they had never seen befofre that looked oddly like a hawk, called Levas, Riku noted, flipping through his book.

"Thundaga!" Cora shouted, sending bolts of thunder falling from the fragments of sky above them, destroying at least three Insicors and one Balance. Cora charged into the battle with the two of them, and destroyed the Rhapsodies almost as quickly as they had walked into the light pillar. As they were transported out, the pillar behind them disappeared completely, and the pillar that would bring them to the next one of the three appeared.

"It's restored?" Dolan asked lowly, shoving his hands in his pockets, and Riku nodded.

"If it wasn't the pillar of light would still be there, I guess."

"Two to go." Cora spoke, walking through the pillar.

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Village of Dawn**

"King Mickey!" Sora shouted, rushing up with Donald, Goofy and Blaise at his side to the small figure of the black mouse, standing in front of one of the larger of the wooden buildings, talking to a very tall man in a white coat. He must have been in his middle ages, his hair was light brown and tousled, his light brown eyes mimicking it.

"Sora! Donald, Goofy! I take it ya know about the Rhapsodies?" King Mickey asked, his eyebrows arching to show his worry. "And this must be one of the new generations of Keyblade Wielders..." he mumbled, looking at Blaise.

"My name's Blaise," he said politely, bowing slightly.

"What do you mean 'new generation'?" Sora asked.

"Your friend Sienna was only the beginning. All the time new Keyblade Wielders are chosen by the realms of Light, Dark, Inbetween and Nothingness, but there's been a _new realm created_." Mickey stressed.

"A new realm?!" Sora, Donald and Goofy all exclaimed at once.

"Yes," the tall man behind King Mickey began. He had a slight accent that none of them could quite place, but still spoke very fluently, "I've just finished warning King Mickey. When Organization XIII took my son away and created the first Rhapsody, a new realm to accomadate the emotions of hearts was created."

"It's called the Realm of Color," King Mickey said, "he also told me that the colored Heartless, like Blue Rhapsody, Green Requiem, Red Nocturne? They hold a slight essence of emotion in them, which is what makes them so unique. They half belong in that realm."

"It's also why Xemnas and Thomas called them Rhapsodies," the man began.

"Amory's son was the first one taken by the Organization, because he was goin' to be the next King of Eventide Mountains. He's very skilled in magic and controlling his emotions enough to perform _very_ powerful spells. He's probably leadin' the army of Rhapsodies all out here, and controllin' the Realm of Color to create more of them."

"So exterminating the Rhapsodies wouldn't do any good?" Blaise asked, his involvement in the conversation shocking everybody.

"Only temporarily," King Mickey said gravely, "but who created the first one?"

"We know that one," Sora said, putting his fist to his chest, "Our friend, Sienna. When her heart was taken away, she was turned into a Nobody named Anixens and scouted by the Organization. She has a special power to bring out the emotions in hearts and turn them into Rhapsodies. Our friends, Umeko and Axel are imprisoned in The World that Never Was, and they heard this information and sent it to us."

"That makes much more sense," Amory began, running a hand through his hair out of his nerves, "that was the girl that could bring the Nobodies out of people and helped to foil Thomas's first plan, yes?" He looked directly at the four of them now and pronounced very clearly, "This girl is probably helping him run the Rhapsodies. If she can make them, no doubt that she can control them."

"A new realm... we have to tell the rest of them!" Sora exclaimed, and Donald, Goofy and Blaise nodded in earnest. "All I want to know is why they're so strong. Why the Rhapsodies are so much stronger than any Heartless or Nobody that I've ever fought."

"They're made out of emotions, child," Amory stated quietly, some mist flying around him, "Emotions have no limit. One can be as angry as one wants, as ecstatic as one wants, as deep into depression as one wants. Emotions are the strongest part of a human because their strength has no end. Rhapsodies are stronger than the Heartless and Nobodies because they know that even if they fade into the darkness, they will never truly go away."

"Ya have to go," King Mickey said seirously now, even as Sora began to reflect on what Amory had just told them, "go get your friends, and we'll be workin' on findin' a passageway into the Realm of Color. Until then, destroy as many Rhapsodies as ya can, there's no reason that if we can't quite save the worlds yet ta let 'em join the others in End of the World, is there?" Donald shook his head while Goofy nodded, and Donald elbowed him, causing him to shake his head as well. "Now go!"

The four of them set back off towards the Gummi Ship, leaving King Mickey and Amory standing face-to-face again. "Coy... my son..." Amory whispered to himself, "he's been turned into a monster. The heir to the throne."

"We'll find a way to change him back, King Amory," King Mickey assured him, "We'll find him and change him back. Your kingdom won't fall."

"Screw the kingdom," Amory whispered, "I want my son."

**Author's Note: This chapter was going to be painfully long, but I cut it in half, and I'll do Part 2 hopefully by tonight or very early tomorrow morning; I stay up late. xD That was mainly a tie-together chapter, but personally, I was pretty fond of it. 'Till later!**


	9. Kiss the Sun pt 2

CHAPTER NINE:

_Kiss the Sun pt. II  
_

**Author's Note: Alright, the second half of Kiss the Sun. Like I said, it was too long, so I had to sort of snip it in half here. They're going to finish up in Agrabah and End of the World in this chapter, so expect a pretty interesting finish, and maybe an unexpected surprise out of Aladdin. We'll see. Anyway, please read and review!**

* * *

**Agrabah: The Palace, The Sultan's Office**

"Sultan!" Aladdin shouted as he, Roxas, Kairi and Kasa finally managed to bust the door down. Standing in front of them was, indeed, the Sultan, except there was something eerie about him, but they couldn't tell much because he was facing the other way. What they could tell was that his skin was now swirling black and red, and many Incisors were surrounding him, the glare from their eyes surely like a cat's. "Sultan, are you alright? Where's Jasmine?"

The group had not come across Jasmine during their entire climb up the Palace. Aladdin had been hoping that she had enough common sense to hide from the Rhapsodies, but even if she did, it didn't exactly mean that she would be safe from them. After all, Jasmine often found herself in questionable predicaments.

The Sultan, however, did not respond. He instead turned around, his eyes glowing purple through all of the dark. A deranged smile was spread upon his face, and he was holding two giant hammers, also swirling with black and red darkness. Suddenly, multiple Hammerheads replaced the Incisors that were surrounding him.

"We can't hurt the _Sultan_!" Aladdin exclaimed to his new friends, Roxas, Kairi and Kasa.

"We have to, Aladdin," Roxas said, "I doubt it'll hurt him." Disregarding Oblivion, for he was afraid of the darkness it would extract, Roxas pulled out Oathkeeper and charged towards the Sultan. In moments, he was knocked back by the reverb of one of the hammers. Kairi, however, got the idea, and as she ran up to the sultan, she jumped up to avoid the reverb, and began to wack the Sultan in the head multiple times.

"Sorry, Sultan and Jasmine," Aladdin mumbled as he repeated what Kairi was doing, and Roxas charged after him as well.

It seemed, after at least ten minutes of repeating this, his health wasn't going down in the slightest. He slowed down a little bit, but his strength did not depleat and he wasn't holding back. Kairi, Roxas and Aladdin were growing tired, but Kasa was still standing in the background, rubbing the hilt of her keyblade cautiously.

"_Kasa_!" Kairi finally called, pulling her out of her trance, "You have to _help us_!"

"I can't!" Kasa called back nervously, backing up a pace. Kairi could already tell that this girl had a love for all things living, but what she didn't understand was that Rhapsodies weren't alive. Still, if it meant beating up the Sultan, she wasn't sure if she could handle that.

"Kasa, you have to," Roxas called back, maybe to see if he could knock some sense into her, "Rhapsodies are just the solid version of the emotion in peoples' hearts. They're not real people anymore; they're _monsters_, and they're destroying the worlds-" Roxas was interrupted as he was knocked backwards and into a wall. As he pushed himself to stand, he gave Kasa a sort of a scary glare from far away from the battle, and said, "and they wouldn't hesitate to destroy your world and your family, thousands more living things than you'll _ever_ have to destroy."

Finally, it seemed, Kasa nodded, although her hands were trembling on the hilt of her keyblade, but she ran up and got knocked back by the reverb of one of the Sultan's hammers. Not letting that stop her (obviously equipped with a lot of hit points), she ran back towards the Sultan and began to hit the crap out of him.

"Wow... Kasa!" Kairi called at her tiredly, barely avoiding another hammer to the ground, "You're doing great!"

Kasa didn't respond, but just smiled meekly to herself as she landed another blow on the Sultan. Suddenly, she didn't seem to care anymore about whether or not she was hurting him, because it almost seemed _fun_.

When it seemed like they had finally knocked the Sultan down for good, at least extracting the darkness of the Rhapsodies out of him, he got back up again, this time equipped with four hammers. "This is too difficult," Roxas gasped, "we need _help_."

Suddenly, a low, long whistle was heard throughout the palace, and for a moment, it seemed like time had stopped. A dark figure began swirling around the room, encasing Aladdin, Roxas, Kairi and Kasa into a small group in the center of the room, and finally, the dark figure had run _through_ the Sultan, causing him to cry out.

Finally, as all of the hammers disappeared around him, along with the Hammerheads, the Sultan, completely human, fell to the floor, gasping not out of being partly destroyed, but the fatigue; a man like that could never wield four giant hammers without the help of a Rhapsody, that's for sure.

"Sultan!" Aladdin called, running towards him. Kairi and Kasa followed, Kasa especially worried, helping him up and fanning him slightly, but Roxas stayed back, furrowing his eyebrows. The dark figure was gone.

"Who _was_ that?" Roxas whispered to himself, but not before the same long, low whistle sounded one more time. This time, it caught the attention of the Sultan, Kairi, Kasa _and_ Aladdin, but nobody showed up.

* * *

**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"Sora," Donald croaked, "we should go get Dolan, Riku and Cora from the End of the World first!" he paused for a moment to fire another laser at a small enemy ship, sending it disappearing once more, "we're closest, and they're probably really close to finishing up in there!" he shouted.

"Well, I dunno," Goofy said now, engaging a defensive system on the Gummi Ship, "that End of the World is a really tough place. Plus, they got Dolan now, 'n he's not really experienced in this whole Heartless-Nobody-Rhapsody stuff," he interrupted, speaking so slowly that Donald was beginning to get annoyed.

"They might be a little behind," Sora said, "but all we have to do is go meet up with them at World Terminus, and if they've saved whatever worlds have been swallowed into the darkness, then it's no problem."

"Then we're going to get Kasa, Roxas and... Kairi from Agrabah, right?" Blaise asked, polite as always, and barely moving in his seat behind the cockpit. Sora finally looked back at him, a little perturbed at something, but as he opened his mouth to speak, Donald shouted at him to keep his eyes on the sky, and he turned back.

"Hey, Blaise, why are you always so... full of manners?" Sora asked.

"Polite!" Goofy exclaimed, initiating another defensive system.

Blaise, however, looked in pure shock, and shook his head, even though he knew that they couldn't see him. "I don't know, it's just how I was raised. I didn't realize I'd been so polite. But it is how I got the job at that bakery, though."

"Just let loose some times, dude," Sora advised him, "especially while fighting."

"Yeah, you gotta be funny, like us!" Goofy said, and Donald put his wing to his face, rubbing his temples as he shot lasers with his other wing controlling it.

"You already _said_ that line," Donald said tiredly, and Goofy looked in pure shock. Abruptly, red lights began flashing throughout the Gummi Ship, signaling danger. Sora hit a few buttons, and the Gummi Ship turned backwards, beginning to fly towards its destination, but facing them with what looked like a _Rhapsody Gummi Ship._

"No way!" Sora shouted, "They've got ships now, too?"

"That Realm of Color sure is somethin'," Goofy mentioned. Finally, Blaise ran up to the cockpit and asked if he could help at all.

"I'm initiating an extra weapon system," Donald said, hitting a few buttons. Finally, he directed Blaise to what looked like a controller stick for an old-school Atari game, and told him, "shoot the ammo at the ship! We're going to need all the power we can get!"

If they thought that only the Rhapsodies were a problem, Sora thought, they haven't seen anything yet.

* * *

**End of the World: World Terminus, Atlantica**

"It makes sense that the last world would be Atlantica," Cora breathed through the water, her speech messed up slightly only by the bubbles, "Having an undersea world of dark makes sense; water takes up over half of most worlds." Her fish-half of herself along with her coconut bra, or whatever the hell it was, were a light teal, almost a seafoam green. Dolan had a dark purple tail as a merman, mirroring his hair, whereas Riku had a light green tail.

"What _are these things_?" Dolan asked, frustrated as he began wacking at some sort of swimming Rhapsody, followed by a few swimming Heartless that they were currently ignoring, that looked like a blowfish; whenever Dolan got near it, it would blow up and send spikes his way. Cora pulled out the small book and began to flip through it.

"Spikes," she told him, and then shoved it back into her pocket as she rushed over to help Dolan with the Rhapsody he was currently struggling with, while Riku took on two other Spikes at one time.

"I can get it myself!" Dolan assured her, sending a glare her way. Suddenly, the Spike blew up again, sending him backwards. By the time Dolan got up to rush back towards the Spike, Cora had already destroyed it.

"Obviously, you can't," Cora shouted back at him, "because you don't understand the concept of team work. If someone offers you help, don't yell at them, take it graciously, because you'll never know when you get that help again." Cora was used to reciting this speech, because she constantly had to to her best friend Umeko, who had this thing with working alone.

"Just trust me," Cora finally called back at him. She rushed towards another Spike, this one slightly larger than the others, and knocked it upwards with Smoke on the Water. "Baseball, Dolan!" she called at him, and knocked the falling Rhapsody back forward. Dolan, who seemed to have gotten the message, gripped One Nightmare and knocked it back again, the Spike exploding in the water, the last one in Atlantica.

In only moments, they were pushed out of the fragment of Atlantica, and the portal there disappeared. "Looks like that's the end of the line," Riku said, "we should go and try to meet up with Sora and the others at Gate to the Darkness so they don't have to deal with all the Heartless we did on the way here."

"Yeah," Cora agreed, following him towards the pillar of light meant to take them back towards the beginning.

"Hey," Dolan stopped them, and Cora turned around along with Riku, looking at him expectantly. "Thanks," he mumbled, "for helping me with that Rhapsody." After that, it was clear in his face that they wouldn't be expecting a lot of 'thank yous' out of this boy, so Cora smiled, satisfied enough.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Soundless Prison**

"Axel," Marluxia began, his lips curling back to show pearly white teeth. _Somebody_ was happy about seeing Axel again. Axel resisted the urge to shudder, and then looked at Umeko for signs that she remembered to keep her mouth shut. Finally, Axel cleared his throat and began to try and persuade The Graceful Assassin.

"You couldn't find anyone higher up in rank?" Axel said first, looking towards Coy, who shrugged.

"Numbers I through VII, IX and X are all out researching. Thomas is here, however, but he wouldn't dare talk to you." Marluxia responded, his lips still curled into a malicious smile, one that scared even Umeko, who gulped slightly.

"You offered us working here yesterday morning. We're ready to take you up on your offer," Axel said, putting on his best facade of seriousness and determination, but he couldn't help to put his hand to his head when he heard Umeko say the one thing he was wishing that she wouldn't, especially not with Marluxia in the room.

"_Rawr_," Umeko said, as fiercely as she could, which was about that of a kitten.

Thankfully, The Graceful Assassin just seemed to ignore this, although he did look skeptical when his sea blue eyes met Axel's green ones. "How do I know that you're not just spying for Key of Destiny, his Somebody and his friends?"

_God_, Axel thought, _this would be so much easier were it any of the other Organization members_. "I care a little more about my freedom, even if it means working for Organization XIII again, than the safety of a few kids with keys, Marluxia," he looked at him, daring him to challenge that logic.

Marluxia, who had begun sneering once Axel started talking, instead flashed them another lip-curling grin, and nodded. "Know that if you betray the Organization," Marluxia said, waving his hand around for a moment, "your destruction is iminent. You and the girl." From his hand, which many cherry blossom petals had been created from, a small portal from the outside appeared on the bars of the prison, and the two of them walked out.

_Thank you_, Axel thought, _no more seventy-four days of Christmas_. As Graceful Assassin and Flurry of Dancing Flames met eyes again one more time, they both smiled, and Axel spoke. "Her name is Umeko. She's skilled with a keyblade and can certainly be of some use to you," he told him.

"There will be no need for any of you to go on missions unless one of our own fades into the darkness," Marluxia assured them, "not until we've doused the world in darkness, in which case you may have to do some surveying of areas..." Marluxia posed for a moment, but Axel waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah, surveying of areas, I'll go get one of the extra rooms set up for Umeko." As they left the Soundless Prison, careful not to use a portal so Marluxia wouldn't be suspicious, Axel whispered to Umeko, "We'll only have to go and do anything if anyone else in the Organization goes down. Even then, we can reassure Roxas and the group."

Umeko nodded slowly, but then rasied her eyebrow. "Am I going to have to wear one of those ridiculous cloaks?" she asked.

Axel smiled, put his hand out, and from the darkness that came from it was a black cloak over her clothes. Umeko looked up and down herself once or twice, and then frowned at the taller man, who had done the same to himself. "Dress for success, Umeko," he laughed as they left the basement floors of the castle, "dress for success."

* * *

**Agrabah: The Palace, First Staircase**

"That's all of them," Roxas smiled, and then looked towards Aladdin, who had just defeated the last Rhapsody, an Incisor, with his saif. He also looked relatively happy about the entire ordeal.

"Since we beat the Rhapsody inside the Sultan, most of them went away," Aladdin remarked, "it was a lot less crowded on our way down. He must have been controlling most of them." He smiled at the other three, but Roxas looked down at his feet; yeah, the Rhapsody that _they_ beat. Or whatever that shadow was.

Kasa, however, was shaking with giddiness, although obviously trying to hide it. "That was kind of fun, wasn't it?" she asked the other three, smiling in an almost crazy way, but mostly funny, "Destroying Rhapsodies. And I'm not that bad at it, either!" She grasped One Empty Sleep and swung it around a few times.

"Slow down, cowgirl," Kairi laughed, and Roxas and Aladdin followed the laughter. Soon after, however, they heard the soft 'clunk clunk' of footsteps rushing at them from behind. As they turned, they saw a beautiful woman with large earrings and her hair back in a loose braid, wearing simple, light blue clothing, followed by a tiger. Her belly was swollen with what looked like a child, and she seemed to be beaming.

"Aladdin, you're alright!" she exclaimed, hugging her husband.

"I'm just glad you're safe, Jasmine," Aladdin said happily to the Princess of Heart, and then Jasmine looked forward at the three of them.

"You look just like Sora," she said to Roxas, and Roxas nodded; yeah, he got that a lot.

"We should be on our way," Kairi grinned, letting Destiny Blade disappear from her right hand. "If you need any help again, you know how to reach us." Aladdin laughed; of course they knew how to reach them- if darkness was swirling around their world.

Back at the Bazaar, Kairi took Kasa by the shoulder, causing her new friend to whirl towards her while they waited. "You did great, Kasa," she told her, giving the smaller girl a warm smile. "You just have to remember that you're not hurting anyone. Even if the Rhapsodies used to be people, you're not killing them, just sending them back up to Kingdom Hearts."

"Kingdom Hearts," Kasa said quietly, "it sounds like such a scary place to me."

"Don't worry, it's not," Roxas reassured her, putting a hand on her other shoulder. "It's just where stolen hearts and defeated Heartless go as their final rest. Now that there's only one left..." Roxas wrinkled his nose, "at least, unlike when the Organization was collecting hearts, they're only resting up there."

"That's good," Kasa nodded, "but just... everything makes sense now. The missing teenagers from my town- my world, Song's Shimmer, I suppose- they must have been taken from the Organization and turned into Rhapsodies. There were too many people to have been from a regular kidnapper."

"It probably was from Organization XIII," Roxas admitted, and then smirked. "We liked to play dirty. Stealing, luring children in with candy, fighting, etc." Roxas laughed as he was elbowed in the rib by Kairi, and they all looked up when the Gummi Ship landed.

"Guys, thanks for being so great to me," Kasa told Roxas and Kairi.

"We're your friends," Kairi said, "don't think anything of it. Now let's see what information Sora got about the Rhapsodies."

* * *

**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"The Realm of Color?" Dolan asked. Dolan, Cora and Riku had to wait for Sora's long explanation until they had gotten Kairi, Kasa and Roxas from Agrabah. Because Sora had to explain all this, Donald, Goofy and Blaise took over the controls. Blaise had, after all, just learned how to fire the lasers.

Sora nodded. "And it doesn't matter if we eliminate every Rhapsody out there, because Anixens and Amory's son, the first Rhapsody, can just create more out of the Realm of Color, instead of creating them from actual people like Anixens did." The entire group seemed shocked; they never believed that a whole other _realm_ could exist apart from the Light, Dark, In-Between and Nothingness.

"So no matter how many Rhapsodies we send to Kingdom Hearts," Kasa whispered, "they'll never end. They're like Heartless. Except, of course, that they're a lot stronger." She managed a small chuckle.

"King Mickey said that he and Amory, the king of Eventide Mountains are going to be looking for a passageway into the Realm of Color so we can lock up whatever door in there the Rhapsodies are coming out of." Suddenly, the rest of the keyblade wielders seemed much more relieved.

"And then, once we do that, we can go and save Umeko and Axel," Cora said, nodding her head.

"Yeah, but in the meantime," Donald called back from the cockpit, obviously hearing a lot of the conversation, "we have to destroy as many Rhapsodies as we can to stop the worlds from being annhilated!"

"Noted." Cora nodded sharply, actually managing to make the other six in the resting area of the Gummi Ship laugh, and she suddenly felt a lot more welcome. Cora remembered faintly what Riku had called her. A _friend_. Was that really true? Her smile grew, and suddenly, Riku, Kairi, Sora and Roxas's faces were surprised. "What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing, it's just..." Kairi stopped.

"We've never seen you smile like that before." Riku finished.

Cora's cheeks reddened a little bit as she put her fist to her mouth. "I guess not." Cora's embarrassing little moment was interrupted, however, when her cell phone rang again. She pulled it out quickly and answered it, noticing that it was Umeko. "Umeko," she began, "how are you and Axel doing?"

"We're out of the prison," Umeko's voice was hard to hear as it was barely above a whisper, "but we're pretending that we're helping out the Organization. We're going to feed you as much information about the worlds being taken over as we can," she reassured Cora.

"Good news," Cora said, covering the speaking part of the phone with her hand, "Umeko and Axel will be like spies for us. We'll know what worlds are close to being destroyed ahead of time, now," she uncovered the part of the phone she had covered up and listened intently to Umeko telling her that if she needs to call, when she should and shouldn't call.

"Got it," Cora said, nodding, "but what if they send you on a mission?"

"Don't worry about that, it's taken care of," Umeko assured her, "it looks like the Superior is back from wherever he was. We've got to go. 'Bye." She hung up the phone quickly, and Cora tried to ignore the pain in her stomach; the Superior, Xemnas, had communicated to her through a Hammerhead, one of the smartest Rhapsodies. They really did want her to create hearts for them. She sighed lightly.

The Organization being after them was all her fault.

Speaking of the Organization, as the Gummi Ship landed, the first figure that they saw was a cloaked one, right in the center of the Marketplace, which was completely abandoned, even of Cloud, who liked to spend most of his time there lately, thinking.

"Which one are you?" Sora asked, the first to jump out of the Gummi Ship, but followed shortly after by his nine companions, "Show yourself, you coward!"

Nothing, however, was heard from the figure, but the hood was taken off to reveal a tall man with cinnamon colored hair and bold features. "Lexaeus?" Riku was the one to ask, raising an eyebrow. What an odd Organization member to face off against in Hollow Bastion.

"I'm here for the girl," Lexaeus said, although he did not have to look at Cora, because Cora, who was holding Smoke on the Water close to her, ready to attack him, was soon being stared at by Sora, Kairi, Riku, Roxas, Kasa, Dolan, Blaise, Donald and Goofy- _everyone_.

"Not likely," Cora argued, running towards him. She was knocked to the side by his Tomahawk, and as Riku was the first to try and run into the battle, he was knocked backwards by an invisible barrier. "Shit," she whispered. At least the Organization didn't have control over the Rhapsodies, or that would have made the fight a lot more difficult.

"Give up," he told the girl, pointing his Tomahawk threateningly at Cora, but she wasn't afraid. Lexaeus had earth powers, if she remembered correctly from all of her research the previous year. Before Cora could make a move, hundreds of fist-sized rocks were being thrown at her.

"Air!" she mumbled quickly, trying to protect herself as best as she could. Luckily, the swirling air around her managed to knock away most of the rocks, although she would be getting some bruises on her arms from this man. Cora managed to get up to him with her air still protecting her and deal a few damaging blows, but soon, the earth beneath Lexaeus was moving, sending him up onto a platform.

"You have no chance of victory," Lexaeus laughed and sent more boulders flying her way, as well as platforms beneath her pushing her off and onto the ground. "you're coming with me, conscious or not."

"Never," Cora spat, slight blood welling up in her mouth as she pushed herself back. She never realized, in any of her research, how powerful Number V, Silent Hero, was. Cora didn't give up, however, and thought to herself, _There's earth all around us. If I can't avoid his attacks, I should use them to my advantage_.

Manipulation.

Thomas had taught her well.

As Lexaeus sent platforms flying up wherever she went, she used them to climb up to where he was, hopping on one to the other. This took away a lot of energy, but it got her close up to this man, close enough to knock him off of his platform. She jumped down, meeting him at the ground, and began to slice at him with Smoke on the Water.

Often times, her keyblade clashed with his Tomahawk, but mostly, she was lucky enough to get enough blows in. Far away, his attacks were horrible to deal with, but he wasn't that amazing with close up combat. Just as she thought this, however, he brought down his Tomahawk on her left shoulder, causing her to fall to the ground in pain.

An unexpected move, Lexaeus planted his foot on her neck and said, "We're going, Princess." Cora scoffed; as if he didn't know that she wasn't a Princess anymore. She wasn't since she was taken by Thomas, and his using her to open Kingdom Hearts was all a charade. Thomas had made her unconsciously open Kingdom Hearts with her keyblade; the only ones that didn't know were her _friends_. She was afraid of telling Roxas, because then he would think that Sienna lost her heart for nothing.

"Go to hell," Cora spat, and grabbed his leg with her free hand and knocking it with her keyblade, sending him behind her. She could swore she heard some cheering from outside of the barrier, but she wasn't sure. As she managed to make it up to Lexaeus, she began to deal critical blows, but her anger wasn't even directed towards the Silent Hero.

After a while, Lexaeus finally dropped his Tomahawk and onto one knee. "I'm not fading..." he told himself, shaking his head. Creating a portal behind himself, he slipped in, bleeding and breathing heavily.

The barrier disappeared, and Riku ran up to her, helping her stand. "I didn't beat him," Cora whispered. "He went back to the Castle."

"None of them are going to risk their lives to get you, Cora," Roxas shook his head as if he knew everything about them, which he probably did. "You're never going to send them to the darkness, because they're not gonig to risk their new revival. They just want to bring you to the castle, so if we can stop them from doing that, we're okay."

Cora nodded; she still felt somehow upset that she couldn't defeat him.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House, The Roof**

Cora licked her sky-sugar ice cream silently. **Author's Note: I did not make that up, I swear it. xD** She was never a big fan of sea-salt, but Riku, who joined her up on the roof, seemed to like it just fine. They had been mostly quiet since they arrived up there, but who would want to make noise with such a beautiful sunset?

"You did a good job with Lexaeus earlier," Riku mentioned, "I remember fighting him back in Castle Oblivion. He wasn't easy," he admitted, and Cora smiled, licking her ice cream again. What could she say to that?

"What you said earlier," she started, leaving the rest of her ice cream and letting it drip next to her a little, suddenly at a loss of appetite, "about us being friends. Is that... why?" was all she could ask, and she found herself annoyed when Riku began to laugh, now letting his sea-salt ice cream drip on the roof as well.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" Riku asked. "If it's about Thomas, we know that you're sorry for what you did. You're a good fighter, and you care. And I consider you a friend." He paused. "Is that enough?" With his free hand, he pushed Cora's slowly growing brown hair behind her ear, and she looked at the silverette.

"Yeah," she finally decided, and took one last look at the sun before it disappeared in the horizon, "that's enough."

**Author's Note: Well, this was a little longer than usual, but like I said, this would have been a whole lot longer if I didn't decide to cut this chapter, **_**Kiss the Sun**_** in half. But I hope you liked it; I've got a lot more planned, still. I've also, to be honest, never written a fight with Lexaeus in it. I found it sort of fun. : D Please review!**


	10. Hello, I'm your Martyr

CHAPTER TEN:

_Hello, I'm your Martyr_

**Author's Note: Okay, this chapter might be short-ish, especially because I don't have really any fight scenes planned, a lot of it is just to boost together the plot. So, that's about it for the author's note for this chapter, except I should mention that the song the title is named after, Cold (But I'm Still Here) by Evans Blue is the song that inspired the scenes with Cora later, so look out for it.**

**Disclaimer: Idunownit. D:**

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Hall of Empty Melodies**

Umeko stood up straight as if she was being measured for a dress as Xemnas observed her, but not without a couple of gulps of nervousness. He looked at her as if she was some kind of a valuable object in a collection, rather than an actual fighter. Finally, it seemed, The Superior stopped in front of her.

"Only one year of experience?" Xemnas asked Axel as they stood comfortably in the Hall of Empty Melodies, "She looks strong for that short of a period of training. How did she gain the ability to wield a keyblade...?"

"She has a surprisingly open heart, and she took in the power from when she was best friends with Cora." It sort of gave Umeko a pang in her stomach to hear 'was', but she did know it was all an illusion, and she nodded her head. "It, in a way, rubbed off on her." Xemnas, however, seemed to like this bit of information.

"A very open heart... I'll keep that in mind," he spoke, his serious expression not fading in the slightest. Axel was trying his best not to recoil; that could mean a lot of things. Hopefully they would be able to take down the Organization from the inside out before he got the chance to try anything with influencing Umeko.

"I will accept her as an honorary Organization XIII member," Xemnas spoke, and then turned on his heel to go wherever-the-hell it was that he was going. Axel, however, spoke up, suddenly confused.

"Shouldn't we meet with Thomas?" Axel said, trying to kepe his voice straight and clear of suspicion, "I thought that my Heartless would like to meet with the newest recruit," he cleared it up, even managing to make The Superior turn around for a moment, raising an eyebrow in his own personal curiosity.

"Thomas has a previous engagement tonight. Feel free, however, to look around the castle without the dangers of other Nobodies, Heartless or Rhapsodies. They'll recognize you as part of the Organization with those cloaks on," he regarded Umeko for a moment, realizing that she had never quite been given a cloak. Axel had sent one from another room on her. Xemnas quickly disappeared in a portal of darkness.

Axel breathed heavily. "No meeting Thomas quite yet," he said, "we should find Anixens, and see what she's up to." To this, Umeko nodded. "Maybe she'll remember enough to remember that time in Traverse Town that we became friends," he pondered to himself as they set towards the set of rooms, looking for Roxas's previous one.

"Axel?" Umeko began, "Do you think this'll work?"

She must have asked him this three times already, and his answer was always some variant of 'yes', but this time, he shook his head and said, "No."

"What?" Umeko questioned anxiously, "Why?"

"The Organization's a lot more powerful than they used to be, and they're not willing to risk their lives with anything risky. It's almost as if they're completely confident that this is really..." Axel stopped as they made it to Anixen's room, the number XIII plastered onto the door, underneath, painted over a white strip of tape, _Bringer of Light_.

"The end of the world." Umeko looked at Axel, who looked back at her, and they both smiled as if sharing some secret joke.

Maybe they would get along after all.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House, Main Room**

Cora crept through the hallways and into the main room. It must have been about midnight, not that the time meant much to her, anyway. She certainly didn't have a problem with going to sleep, she just didn't want to. The longer she slept, the harder it would be to get up in the morning. That's just how it was with Cora.

"What are you doing up so late?" Cloud, her childhood friend came from the darkness of a corner, almost scaring Cora out of her own skin. She sighed, however, sensing no danger, and went back towards the fridge.

"If I don't have some coke now, I won't be able to make it through the night." As she pulled out the cold can, a nice reassurance on the palms of her hands, she continued by saying, "I should really start calling it soda."

Cloud, apparently getting the joke, chuckled, and outstretched a hand. "Want me to walk you to your room?" Cora shook her head; he was always so helpful when he really didn't need to be. Plus, Cora already decided that she was going to spend the rest of the literal-night-connotational-morning walking through Hollow Bastion, maybe paying a visit to the Radiant Garden's castle. She had too much on her mind.

"No thanks," Cora said, "I'm just going to go for a walk."

"Okay," Cloud said, shrugging and turning the other way, "just be careful of the Heartless. They still swarm this place..." Cloud shook his head as if he had just finished reprimanding a small child, and made his way down the hallway opposite of the wielders' hallway to go back to his room.

"Heartless..." Cora mumbled as she walked outside. Aside from the first battle in Twilight Town, they had mostly left her alone. Even in End of the World, the Heartless had been bothering only Dolan and RIku, and never actually made a move to touch her. She didn't think of this, however, until she was outside. All of the Heartless simply shrunk away before her.

"Who's your mommy?" Cora asked smugly, just trying to lighten up her mood slightly. There could be so many explanations of why the Heartless had been avodiing her, but it was too late for her to think of any of her theories, or even go back to her intense study of the anatomy of a Heartless. It was almost too bad that thebuilding she had in End of the World still held her old study room. She had changed most of her theories since then, dubbing the original ones flawed.

Taking one more swig of her soda, she sighed; it wasn't the time to be thinking about her studies. It was the time to be _clearing_ her head, to stay up so she would be able to help destroy as many Rhapsodies as possible, at least until King Mickey and Amory found a way into the Realm of Color.

Cora stopped at the Marketplace again, hearing a rush of the wind so strong and shocking that she dropped her coke can, and the brown liquid began fizzing on the concrete beneath her, soaking the bottom of her shoes. "But why is the coke gone?" Cora asked herself pessimistically. **Author's Note: Bad joke, I know.**

"Cora," came Thomas's voice again. Materializing in front of her from the shadows, he smirked as he ran a hand through red and black hair. Suddenly the coloration of the Rhapsodies made sense, Cora thought. "How's your day been?" He was so... _conversational_, it almost made Cora sick. Almost.

"Besides Lexaeus almost killing me trying to bring me to you?" Cora asked, trying not to notice Thomas's growing smile, "Just peachy, thanks."

"Cora, sweetheart, you know I wouldn't have let them kill you. You're far too valuable for that." He walked closer to her, and Cora took a deliberate step backwards. If she knew one thing after working under his command for so long, it was to never give him any ideas that he can get close to his goal.

"Valuable." Cora repeated. "Like a possession."

"Of sentimental value, I assure you," Thomas's smile did not vanish, it just changed a little bit to be marginally catty. "I'll give you one last chance from me to come to Organization XIII without a fight. What'll it be, Cora?"

Cora didn't know what she was more ashamed of- the fact that she hadn't tried to run away the moment that she saw Thomas was there, or the fact that she actually _hesitated_ a moment to answer his last question. Instead of answering, however, she let Smoke on the Water appear in her right hand, and clasped it tightly.

"Kitty's got _claws_," Thomas purred as his two black chakram burned in dark flame into his hands. Without halting, as he never did, he threw his chakrams at her, one after the other. Luckily, she knew this trick of his, and managed to reflect them quickly back at Thomas. He caught them all one by one, his expression unchanging as if he was expecting it. "Cora wants to _fight_ me. How... _precious_."

Suddenly, Cora found herself unmoving, bound by some dark shadows. As she tried to wrench her arms, already bruised from her fight with Lexaeus, out of the bonds, absolutely nothing happened. They were like iron against her skin, unforgiving and cold. Although she struggled, Thomas walked closer to her.

"After she stepped into the darkness, looking for power, looking for the strength to fight the Heartless. After I gave her that power. Haven't you wondered why the Heartless haven't been fighting you, Cora?" By now, his face was inches from hers. "Since our last little talk at Twilight Town, your heart has sunken farther into the darkness. Heartless don't like tainted hearts, Cora. And you, you still have the ability to _control_ them, all but myself, of course. Do you know why?" Cora didn't answer him. "You're still a part of the darkness, sweetheart."

"No," Cora breathed, "that's a _lie_."

"No, _that's_ a lie," Thomas said, his face an inch away from Cora's. It was amazing how human he was; she could feel his presence, his forest green eyes boring holes into her, but mostly, she could feel his _breath_. He was _breathing_. He wasn't just a Heartless, he was a living essence of darkness. How was he _living_? Did the darkness really give you that much power?

What a silly question to ask, Cora thought lamely, of course it did.

"You're lying to yourself, Cora, but the answers are written right in your heart." His eyes would not leave Cora's, and as much as she tried to avert her gaze, she could not stop looking at his, either. Why were his eyes green instead of the Heartless yellow? "I stopped being a Heartless a long time ago," Thomas answered her, and Cora scolded herself; how did he know what she was thinking? "When you were under my control, without even knowing about it, _you gave me a heart_, and with it, the power of darkness gave me a perfectly solid body."

"If I gave you that heart, I'll take it away, you bastard," Cora soughed, surprising even herself.

What surprised her even more was Thomas's next move, as he brought his face to Cora's and brushed his lips against her cheeks, only his smirking making it even slightly different from any kiss she had ever received before. It only made Cora shiver, but she wasn't sure _why_. "What if I told you you already have?"

"I'd say..." Cora, whose head was hanging, twitched it to look directly up at him, smiling, "you're so full of shit your eyes should be brown." As usual, Cora spat out jokes at the worst time. Even Thomas managed to smile.

"You know me too well."

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Bringer of Light's Room**

"Anixens?" Axel asked, looking at the girl sitting at the edge of her bed in Roxas's old room. She looked just like Sienna, except her hair was flipped around; it was completely auburn except for one platinum blond streak in the front. The girl even looked at the two of them with the same confusion that Sienna generally had plastered on her face when she hadn't understood anything.

"Flurry of Dancing Flames. I remember you," she spoke as they walked into the room.

Axel's seafoam eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes, from Saïx's description." Anixens went back to staring at her wall, obviously thinking about something. That was the first difference that Axel, and even Umeko who hadn't known her for that long, could tell. Sienna wasn't really a deep-thinking person; she was mostly outspoken and slightly superficial.

"Oh," Axel sighed, dejected. He thought for one glorious second that maybe Anixens retained her memories, but if anyone had those, it would be the Heartless that helped them lock up Kingdom Hearts in their previous journey, but she was long gone. "This is Umeko, she'll be helping us."

"So you have decided to come to this side?" Anixens asked, raising an eyebrow, and then shaking her head and look back at the wall after momentarily glancing at the redhead. "You're stupid, then."

"Do you remember me?" Umeko asked, disregarding.

"No, should I?" Anixens asked back, slightly annoyed now.

"Sienna."

There was a slightly awkward pause as the girl's hands trembled before clutching the sheets of her bed. "What are you talking about?" she asked the girl, turning completely to look at her now, and Umeko actually backed up a pace. Somehow, Anixens, with her experience of being in the Organization, was a lot more intimidating than Sienna, who had just barely heard of keyblades, the Heartless and Nobodies and such when she had met Umeko.

"Sora, Riku, Kairi, _Roxas_, you don't remember any of them?" Umeko tried to make this as conversational as she could, but she was probably freaking the Nobody out a little bit.

"Sienna," Anixens began, ignoring her last question, "that's my name, isn't it?" Umeko was nodding earnestly, but Axel only nodded cautiously, afraid of what any member of the Organization may react with. "Call me Nix," she began, actually causing Umeko and Axel to do a double-take. "Not Nixy. Demyx already abuses that one."

The trust of the new Number XIII _earned_.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Marketplace**

"Why are you hestitating?" Cora finally asked the taller not-so-Heartless-anymore man, "Why don't you just bring me over to The World that Never Was and force me to give them hearts once you darken all the worlds? Is it because you know that they'll never be able to actually do it?" She let him think it over for a moment before she continued, "King Mickey and all of my _friends_ are already on the job at finding out how to stop any more Rhapsodies from appearing, and soon enough, your Anixens will stop making you more, because she has _Sienna_ inside of her and she knows what's right."

"And you're one to preach about what's right, former Princess. Are you sure that they're your friends? Are you sure you can trust Riku, are you sure you do not loathe Sora? Are you sure you're not jealous of Kairi?" Again, Cora writhed in her darkness chains, unwilling to think about what Thomas had just brought up.

"You never answered my question," she informed him.

"I'm taking you right-" Before Thomas could finish his sentence, he paused, looking up at the sky, his ears twitching like an animal's as if he heard something that Cora couldn't hear yet. As the sound came close enough, she heard that it was a long, low whistle, echoing throughout the Marketplace.

In moments, a flash of black appeared and her bonds were _destroyed_.

"You..." Thomas murmured, backing up a step. "I'll be back, Cora, and next time, you won't have a choice. Thomas disappeared in a flash of darkness, obviously still available to him because his body was still given to him by the darkness.

Cora didn't get a good look at whoever had just saved her, because the black figure had disappeared before her. Cora furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, a bit upset that she didn't even get to spout a 'thank you' at whoever had just saved her. Instead, she looked down at her coke can, still smothered in coca-cola, and kicked it down the path as she headed back to Merlin's house. There was no reason that Sora and the others had to know about this- it would just add to their list of troubles.

Cora could protect herself.

Suddenly, however, she felt fatigued and tired. Leaving the coke on the ground like the good samaritan she was, she turned on her heel and walked back inside Merlin's house, the only light inside of it being from the blue glow of the moon. It was about one in the morning, and Cora was actually tired. She turned the corner and shuffled into her room, barely bothering to throw on pajamas before she attempted to drift into sleep.

It seemed, however, every time she tried, a phantom moving in the shadows would wake her up, but nothing was ever there.

* * *

**Later That Day**

It was early. Too early. Cora grasped her new coke and began to chug down as much as she could before Sora started to spout off world assignments and other news. He must have been a joy to have around Donald and Goofy, Cora thought, or maybe it was Donald that he had gotten it from. He did seem a little pushy.

"Same groups as yesterday, I think," Sora said, "Blaise, Donald, Goofy and I'll go to this new place, it's called... Snow White's Cottage. Hey, Snow White, a Princess of Heart!" Cora shuffled in her seat when hearing this and took another sip of her coke. "Riku, Cora and Dolan can go over and help out Beast's Castle, and I think Roxas, Kairi and Kasa can handle the Olympus Coliseum."

"We still have a score to settle with Hades for bringing back the Organization," Roxas reminded him.

Sora, however, frowned. "I don't have the Olympus Ring anymore."

"Here," Cora said lazily, holding out a small amulet at the end of a string. "It's the Olympus Amulet. The one I took last year so I could keep Hades in good measure while he was under my control." Kasa blinked and gingerly reached to take the amulet, but instead, Roxas lunged for it, maybe because it was shiny, and ended up knocking over her coke.

For a moment, the group just looked at the floor as the brown stuff fizzed until it died out, and Cora sighed. "Why is the coke _always gone_?"

**Author's Note: Sorry that chapter was kind of short, it was mostly tie-together and sort of a relief, so like I mentioned, there wasn't a lot of fighting, I think maybe about two hits worth of it. I promise there will be a lot more next chapter, though! See you then.**


	11. Call the Angels pt 1

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

_Call the Angels pt. I_

**Author's Note: Alright, this chapter's going to be full of fighting and separate world storylines. Much looking forward to it, especially making up Snow White's Cottage. THAT should be fun. The seven dwarfs, and such. xD Am I the only one that thinks it should be spelled 'dwarves'? Oh well, enjoy!**

* * *

**Olympus Coliseum: Entrance**

"Ah, my favorite world," Melodious Nocturne sighed, his hands behind his head as he looked around and at the Coliseum. He pushed up his black sleeve for a moment to check the time; it was almost noon. Xigbar was late, as usual. He was supposed to meet Demyx there for official Organization business, although why they had to meet in the Olympus Coliseum was entirely beyond him. He longed to break out the Sitar and strum his life away, but it would probably cause havoc among the world, and he was laying low for a reason.

"Xigbar!" Demyx exclaimed mock-angrily as a large, black and purple swirling vortex of darkness appeared in front of him. "You're late!"

"I care?" Xigbar asked, grinning. Obviously, he was laid-back as usual, but as he opened his mouth to speak again, Demyx interrupted him.

"Why do we have to wait _here_ for Cora?" the musician asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He loved the world, sure, but how was he so sure that Cora would end up in Olympus Coliseum? Besides, his favorite part of the world had been in the Underworld, which was only a few steps away.

"Because the girl was bound to come here eventually, or at least her team mates. They've got to have something against Hades for bringing all of us back." He began to lounge against the leg of a giant, fighting Olympian statue.

"Did you hear? Apparently she kicked Lexaeus's ass pretty good yesterday. He came back quieter than usual and beat up around his arms and legs. But I'll bet Lexy did a pretty good job on Cora, too." Demyx laughed, and he could tell that he was annoying Xigbar, but he continued, anyway, "Do you think that girl actually has a chance of beating us and saving the Light Realm?"

"As if," Xigbar finally responded, "our orders were never to fight to the death. Even if she does try to take us down, we'll just retreat before she gets the chance. We're bound to catch 'er, and even if we can't, once the world is full of darkness she'll have no other place to go, dude." He let his twin guns appear in his hands, and lounged with one of them behind his head, "Every step she takes brings her closer to the Organization."

Demyx smiled, "She can be my friend, right?"

Xigbar smiled, it was always easy to get along with him, because, once again, Demyx wasn't taking anything seriously. Both of their heads snapped up to the sky, however, once they saw a Gummi Ship landing. "That's got to be them!" Demyx exclaimed excitedly, letting his Sitar appear in his hands.

When the Gummi Ship landed, however, Roxas, Kairi and Kasa only stepped out, and it continued up into the sky. They were just _dropping off_ some team members, and none of them were Cora. Well, that was just great.

"Roxas, remember me?" Xigbar asked, not moving his weapon at all.

"Xigbar, Demyx? What are you doing here?" Roxas asked, Oblivion and Oathkeeper materializing in his palms. The smallest girl, Kasa, moved behind him for slight protection, these two men being unfamiliar to her. Kairi, however, sneered and pulled out Destiny Blade.

"I remember you," Kairi said, still frowning at Xigbar, "You were at The World that Never Was. Last time, I couldn't help Sora destroy you, but this time, I can!" she shouted, causing Xigbar to laugh.

"Chill, girl," Xigbar told her, still not moving. "We're not after any of you three, let's just make conversation." He turned to Roxas, whose grip on his keyblades only tightened, "Hey, Roxas, where's Naminé? Did she fall into the darkness?"

Wrong. Thing. To. Say. Roxas charged at Xigbar and Demyx, but a barrier stopped him, sending Roxas back a few feet. "Oh, you still think she's gone, don't you?" Xigbar laughed, and this time, Demyx joined in on the laugh, confusing Roxas to no end.

"What?" Roxas asked, "What about Naminé?"

"Let's go find Cora, Demyx," Xigbar decided, creating another black portal. "And you three should try asking Hades about 'what about Naminé'. See ya," he shouted to them and disappeared into the portal. The barrier disappeared when they were already long gone, and Roxas was actually smiling.

"Naminé..." Roxas said. "Is she really...?" Even Kairi was surprised, letting her own keyblade dropped to her side. But Naminé was gone, she had faded into the darkness the year before; they had never seen her again. "Ask Hades... we've got to get to the Underworld, and quickly!" he cried to Kairi and Kasa, leading them down the steps.

* * *

**Beast's Castle: Entrance Hall**

"What happened here?" Cora asked, confused as they trudged through the entrance hall. Absolutely everything was abandoned, even some of the walls had claw marks on them. There wasn't a piece of furniture in sight and the telltale 'thump, thump, thump' of Beast storming throughout the mansion was gone.

"Beast turned back into a prince, didn't he?" Riku asked, "I wouldn't be surprised if he, Belle, and the rest of his maids and butlers that turned back into humans just up and left. Who would want to live in a house with so many memories?"

"Me," Dolan spoke up, "look at this place. It's _huge_, and Victorian. Probably worth a lot of money." He was now putting his hand to a wall.

"It's not Victorian," Cora corrected lazily, but said nothing else. "Great, so we were just dropped off at an abandoned mansion. Let me call Sora, see if they can drop us off at another world." Cora picked up her cell phone and dialed a number, but nothing happened. Annoyed, she tried again. No signal.

"Let's try going outside," Riku suggested, and walked to the door. As he pulled the handles, they wouldn't budge.

"Or not," Dolan said, and then they could tell his breathing was getting heavier. "What if this is like one of those movies where a group of kids are locked in a mansion, and one by one the killer disposes of them? People like that love to kill dark and mysterious teenagers, which means I'll be the first to go..."

He continued mumbling on. That boy had real fear problems.

"We have to open the door," he decided, "we could use our keyblades to knock down one of the pillars, and pull it up with the strength of three, knock it into the door until it's fallen to the ground, and we'll be home free."

Cora blinked and let Smoke on the Water appear in her hand, and pointed at it with her left one, "Or we could just use our keyblades... that can open anything."

Dolan looked at Cora dumbly for a moment before he looked at his own feet and nodded. "Yeah. Do that."

Cora pointed Smoke on the Water at the door, and in a quick beam of light, it had unlocked and Riku led them outside. Cora took out her cell phone again and tried to dial, but still no reception. "So what do we do, just wait around? I don't see any Rhapsodies around here," Just as she said this, about thirty Incisors must have formed out of the air around them, and two Hammerheads. Even one Balance was somewhere in the crow. "Or we could get rid of them."

"The latter sounds good," Riku agreed, pulling Way to Dawn out of whatever dimension the keyblades go to when they aren't in the hands of the wielder. Before they could even think of an accurate way to deal with all of the Rhapsodies, they were bombarded. Dolan was knocked down and cut in the arms by three Incisors at a time before he thrusted One Nightmare into the air and knocked them out, and then tried his first bit of magic, a Fira, which spun around him and destroyed two of the three.

"Alright, Dolan!" Riku called, laughing. He took Way to Dawn, and bent his knees, his weapon behind him with his right hand, and then swung the keyblade outward in a circle, killing off at least six Incisors around him, but he was knocked back by the one Balance in the back that the three of them had forgotten about.

"This is going to be a long fight," Cora remarked, thrusting her keyblade at the Balance.

* * *

**Snow White's Cottage: Dark Forest**

"No way," Sora said, a little freaked out as they made it to the forest. Everything around them was pitch black except for several pairs of purple eyes glowing from the bushes and trees. "Tree Rhapsodies?"

"We can take 'em," Blaise said confidently, pointing One Dream far ahead of him. In moments, the Rhapsodies, feeling threatened, jumped out from the tree. They looked almost like baboons, huge and hairy with human-like faces, which the four of them would later look up to find were named Swingers.

That, they were named for a good reason. The seven Swingers threw themselves off of the branches of the trees, kicking at the four of them. Blaise and Goofy got hit backwards, but pushed themselves back up. Goofy actually managed to get at least twelve decent hits on three of the Swingers with Save the King before he was thrust back with another swing.

"Thundaga!" Sora finally shouted, sick of the Swingers. As they all disappeared, as if a lightswitch came on, the sun rose and small animals started to come out of the forest.

"Wait, I know this one," Blaise whispered to Donald, Goofy and Sora, who were staring dumbly at all the woodland creatures, looking at them with wide eyes. "You're supposed to sing, and then they'll do whatever you want for you. I'll do it." As Blaise cleared his throat, Sora, Donald and Goofy cringed, afraid of what was coming.

"I'm beautifuuuuul, no matter what they saaaaay. No woooooooords caaaan bring MEEEE DOOOWWWN." When Blaise stopped and all the animals were glaring at him, Donald's annoying voice came in the picture.

"You're not a singer, are you?" Blaise shook his head; of course he wasn't a singer. He was a quarterback, though. Still, it was worth a try, because they realized that they definitely had the animals' attention.

"Could you guys direct us towards Snow White's cottage?" Blaise asked politely, but the woodland creatures, specifically the doe in front, were still glaring at him, a couple of them even baring their herbivoric teeth. His singing must have really sucked. "We'll find our way on our own, then," he said, shrugging, and then waving at the animals as they walked on their way.

"Have you ever wondered why Snow White's livin' in a cottage all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?" Goofy asked the other three, and Donald exchanged looks with Sora, and then Sora with Blaise. They all shrugged.

"Wasn't she trying to get away from some evil que-" Sora paused, stopping in his tracks. He remembered faintly listening to Snow White's story when he was saving the first seven Princesses of Heart two years before. "The Queen."

The sky got dark again at the simple _mention_ of the name.

"She's around here somewhere."

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Bringer of Light's Room**

"Good morning, Nix," Umeko said cheerfully as she and Axel let themselves into her room. She was lying awake on top of her bed, fully clothed. "Did you get any sleep last night?" she asked the girl worriedly.

"I don't sleep. I can't." Nix actually managed to laugh a little bit. "It's amazing that I don't get any bags under my eyes."

"Just like Sienna," Axel laughed, "she had insomnia. She could never, ever go to sleep."

"How do you know so much about my Somebody?" Anixens asked, pushing herself up to a better position to talk to Axel and Umeko, both of which were now sitting at the edge of her bed, smiling at her.

Axel laughed, "We became fast friends when we had to deal with a trio of secretive ducks in a place called Traverse Town." Sienna looked at him seriously for a moment, looking for some hint of humor on his face. She never found anything.

"No, really."

Axel and Umeko immediately burst out laughing; it was a lot more funny when said out loud. "I was looking for my best friend who fell into the darkness. We didn't have a lot of time to become friends because I only sided with you at the tail end of the journey, but I definitely admired you." Umeko spoke.

"You were looking for Cora, weren't you?" Nix asked her, adjusting her black glasses on her face, "Thomas is sending Organization members all over the place to force her in here. She's supposed to be the one to give us hearts when he douses the world in darkness. I wonder how that'll turn out." Nix suddenly quieted down.

"Nix," Axel said, and Anixen's head snapped up to look at him, "do you really want to help out with something like that?"

Nix blinked. "Don't you? Isn't that why you guys decided to take the Organization's side?" This time, it was her turn to be suspicious of them instead of them being suspicious of the Organization, and that was sort of below-the-belt. "You lied to Marluxia, didn't you?"

Umeko shifted uncomfortably, unsure if they should be able to trust Nix with this. Finally, she mumbled, "Yes."

Nix surprised the two of them with a warm smile, one that reached her eyes. "The Superior has made me clean Where Nothing Gathers one time too many. Anything I can do to help you thwart the Organization, just tell me."

"_Really_?" both Umeko and Axel shouted at the same time, and Nix nodded. They both gripped her in a bear hug.

"Funny," Nix laughed as she was embraced by these two. "I don't ever remember being hugged before, but it feels so familiar." They let go of her, and she suddenly looked serious. "Alrighrt, what do you need me to do?"

"Any time today, are any of the Organization members going to be in this castle alone? Besides you and us, that is." Axel asked.

Nix thought for a moment. "If Demyx and Xigbar don't succeed in bringing back Cora, then they'll be alone here tonight. Why?"

"Because we're going to destroy them all, one by one, when they come back from missions. That way, Thomas will think that they got themselves killed from Cora or coming back, and we'll be able to get to him without the rest of the Organization in the way. Where is Thomas, anyway? Does he actually stay in this castle?" Axel asked her.

Anixens shook her head. "I overheard Xemnas saying that he guards this thing called the Door to Color in the Realm of Color. I think that's where unlimited Rhapsodies come from. Ones that don't have to be made by me. He's already made me unlock the door, so my job in the Organization is over. I'm sort of a freeloader right now."

"The Realm of Color? I didn't know that they had their own realm. I'm guessing that the Door to Color is sort of like the door to Kingdom Hearts except in the Realm of Color?" Umeko asked, and Nix nodded.

"Exactly. But Thomas knows that King Mickey's finding a way into the Realm of Color so he and the other keyblade wielders can lock the door for good and defeat Thomas, so he's really on his guard. He's sending out a lot of Rhapsodies." Nix frowned. "In other words, King Mickey has to find a way in, and quick."

"I'll call Cora and tell her about the Door to Color. That way they'll know what to look for once King Mickey finds a way into the Realm of Color. And then we've got to destroy Demyx and Xigbar tonight. Do you think we can do it?"

Suddenly, the three of them heard shuffling by the door, and they froze, hardly daring to turn their heads toward it. Umeko let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding when she saw that it was only Coy, who seemed to be smiling, interested. Behind him, however, was a girl with platinum blond hair and white sundress, looking curiously at them. "Not alone," Nix whispered and looked at the first Rhapsody she ever created and the famous 'witch' of a Nobody, Naminé, back from the darkness.

* * *

**Olympus Coliseum: Underworld, Underworld Caverns**

"I haven't seen any Rhapsodies," Kairi admitted confusedly, "just a lot of Heartless." She knocked a small Black Ballade out of the way as if she was barely paying attention to it, and searched Roxas's eyes for some sense of understanding. Coincidentally, he didn't understand it at all, either.

"Maybe Hades doesn't like the Rhapsodies," Roxas laughed. "It doesn't matter. As long as we get to Hades and ask him what's happened with Naminé." Roxas jumped backwards as, in a burst of flame, a figure appeared before them, and all of the Heartless surrounding them disappeared. Hades.

"Hey, whoa, whoa. What about going to visit Hades?" he asked happily, and then frowned at them. "Wow, you don't look like that Sora brat at all. I thought I'd be seeing him around here sometime soon." Although Roxas had to be thankful for not 'looking like Sora', he still held his two keyblades out at Hades. "We're not too happy, are we?" Suddenly, his flame turned red, and two balls of flame appeared in his hands.

"Hold up," Kairi commanded, holding out the Olympus Amulet at him. Hades, pained by many memories of being threatened by Cora with this amulet, turned blue again and backed up a step, smoothing back his fiery 'hair'.

"What do you need to know?" Hades asked guardedly.

"We need to know about Naminé." Roxas said.

"Naminé faded into the darkness, dead to your world," Hades said, laughing, but Roxas would have nothing of it. He held Oblivion especially close to Hades's neck threateningly.

"Demyx and Xigbar mentioned her. What happened with her?" Roxas's voice was strained, somewhat pleading, and Hades, smiled at him like he knew some secret that the rest of them did not.

"Tell ya what. I'm a little bored, and I could use some entertainment. If one of you can fight Cerberus and win, just one of you, I'll tell you what I did with Naminé. That a deal?" Hades asked them, and Kairi, Kasa and Roxas exchanged worried glances, but Roxas turned towards Hades again and nodded.

"Great," he smiled and then pointed at Kasa. "I pick her."

"Wait, we don't get to pick?" Kairi asked confusedly and Hades shook his head.

"Nope, all me. To the Underdome!" In a snap of his fingers, the three of them found themselves no longer in the caverns of the Underworld, but in a large coliseum-like dome. Kairi and Roxas were sitting chained by their legs to the bleacher seats, close to Hades, who was watching the action excitedly.

A terrified Kasa stood in front of the giant three-headed beast, which was growling in some unexplainable fury. This wasn't just a Rhapsody that would go up to Kingdom Hearts when it was destroyed, this was an _animal_. How could she hurt an animal? "I-I can't do it!" Kasa cried up to them.

"Yes, you _can_!" Kairi called back down to her, just as worried as she was, squeezing Roxas's wrist out of nervousness. "Pretend it's a Rhapsody! Cerberus is part of the Underworld, it can't die, you just have to wait for it to faint! Pretend like it's a Rhapsody, and it won't be gone forever, because it won't!"

Kasa gulped nervously and One Empty Sleep twitched in her hands. She ran at the three-headed dog with her keyblade, and it lunged down. Remembering her fight with the Sultan, she had jumped up to avoid the reverb and slammed down on the dog's head with her keyblade while it was still down.

"Go Kasa!" Roxas shouted.

Kasa, also figuring out that Cerberus's weak spot was its head, jumped on top of him and waited until he threw his center head back again and knocked at it a few more times until the head was pretty much damaged so bad in the brain that it couldn't move anymore. Two heads to go.

* * *

**Beast's Castle: The Village**

"That's all I see," Cora said sighing, and she gave both Riku and Dolan a slight high-five. "We're done pretty early. It's only a little after noon- we should go and see if we can't get ice cream somewhere." Both Riku and Dolan seemed to be very content with that idea, and they started to walk further into town.

"Not likely," came a painfully unfamiliar voice from behind them. As the three keyblade wielders turned around to see who was about to invade the peace next, they found themselves face-to-face with Demyx, Melodious Nocturne and Xigbar, Freeshooter, both of their weapons facing towards Cora.

"Now you're going to try and take her?" Riku laughed, "She beat Lexaeus no problem, don't think that she can't get rid of you two jokers twice as fast." He paused, puffing out his chest a little bit. "And this time, she'll have help."

Riku and Dolan were sure to stay close to Cora this time, trying their hardest not to be pushed out by a barrier, which was unlikely in the first place; Demyx and Xigbar hadn't anticipated using a barrier, not with both of their strength together. They didn't find it quite necessary. "We're going to have this our way," Demyx said, grinning and strumming his Sitar. Ten water clones appeared around him, which Dolan immediately darted to destroy.

"This isn't Burger King," Cora told him, rushing towards Xigbar, who jumped up, suspended in the air, and began to shoot lasers at the girl. She managed to reflect most of them with her keyblade, but one hit her square in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. Xigbar ran up to her and put his hand on her neck, pulling her back up.

"You're coming to the Organization," he told her, smiling.

"Not likely!" Cora said, kicking herself out of his grip before she finally managed to get hand-on-hand with Xigbar and began to wack the crap out of Freeshooter with Smoke on the Water, not intent on losing.

"My clones!" Demyx shouted once all of the water Demyxs had been destroyed and Dolan and Riku moved towards kicking the crap out of Demyx with One Nightmare and Way to Dawn, which seemed to be extremely effective.

Before long, Xigbar managed to get Cora down again, and he pointed his laser right at Cora's forehead. "Say good-bye."

* * *

**Snow White's Cottage: The Forest**

"Where did Snow White say that the Queen was?" Blaise asked Sora, who looked back, surprised at how casual he sounded. They had all visited Snow White, who happened to be surrounded by six of the seven dwarfs, apparently scared for their lives because the queen had stolen the dwarf, Grumpy for some reason.

"In the courtyard of the castle," Donald replied, puffing out his chest. "This is the job for someone with skills in magic," he boasted, "if this queen's going to turn into a dragon like Maleficent did, our best bet is to use magic."

"Whatever ya say, Donald, but I think that she's usin' Grumpy over thar as a trap. She might be workin' for Thomas. Doesn't he have lots of people under his alliance?" Goofy asked, and Sora and Blaise nodded, obviously convinced.

"Does that mean we shouldn't beat her?" Donald as Goofy impatiently, and he shook his head. No, but it was probably a wasted effort.

"You know what, guys? I think that we can get this done alright." Sora said, nodding. Finally, they had reached the courtyard.

**Author's Note: Er, it looks like I'm going to have to split this chapter in two as well... I'm sorry! It would have been painfully long if I continued, I just checked the word amount and it's already a relatively large chapter, so I'll leave it where it is. I'll try to get the next one up soon, I promise! Please review!**


	12. Call the Angels pt 2

CHAPTER TWELVE:

_Call the Angels pt. II_

**Author's Note: Sorry this took a while to get up, guys. The next few chapters might take a bit; my grandfather just passed away and I'm dealing with mourning, running around back and forth to relatives, and of course the wake and funeral later. I'll try to get them up as fast as I can, but bear in mind, my free time is sort of limited for the next week.**

**Oh, and the inspiration for this chapter is All We Are by Onerepublic, so I suggest listening to it as you read. : D**

**And I'm happy, because I got a lot more of Umeko, Axel and co. in this chapter. :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. What? Expected something cute and witty? LOL.**

* * *

**Olympus Coliseum: Underworld, Underdome**

Kasa was gushing blood from her stomach, where a rather shallow but still heavily bleeding rip had been formed from Cerberus's claws. She winced and tried not to cry out as she lunged for the three-headed beast again. He was slowing down; he had to have been. He lunged again before Kasa could get to him, and she narrowly avoided him. There was only so much more fighting she could take.

"Come on, Kasa!" Kairi called out, clenching Roxas's wrist until his circulation would be cut off. Roxas, however, was silently determined. If Kasa won this battle, they would know what happened with Naminé. If she lost the battle, they got no information and lost a keyblade wielder, one both him and Kairi had become particularly fond of.

There was only one option: win.

Kasa understood this as well, but she was so new to keyblade wielding and wasn't ready to take on Cerberus yet. Just her giving it her all without passing out from exhaustion was miraculous on its own. She finally managed to jump on Cerberus's head, the only one of the three that wasn't knocked out, and bash the hell out of it.

"Come _on_!" Kasa shouted, and finally hit it the last time, causing the giant beast to go limp. Taking a minute to reel in the fact that she had beaten this monster unconscious, she smiled and jumped off of it.

Kairi and Roxas began cheering, but Hades's face of immense concentration was unchanging. "I wouldn't cheer just yet, kiddies," he told the two keyblade wielders. Roxas raised an eyebrow at him and Kairi just stared blankly back at the arena. Cerberus was back up again, all three heads, all conscious.

"What magic are you using on him?!" the skeptic Roxas asked Hades.

"No magic, blondie, I've just been training my little underworld guardian lately." Hades snickered, and Kairi and Roxas looked like they'd just been slapped in the face; they wouldn't have let Kasa fight Cerberus if they knew that he had gotten the 'special Hades training treatment' recently.

"Kasa, look out!" Kairi cried to the oblivious Kasa who was walking out of the ring.

Kasa spun around and was knocked backward by a large, heavy paw. She must have thrown fourteen feet back in the air, but used an aerial recovery and jumped back at him, lunging. Obviously, this was a good experience for the new keyblade wielder. She was either becoming much more comfortable with One Empty Sleep or Cerberus was scaring her so much that the skill came naturally.

* * *

**Beast's Castle: The Village**

"Not until you say it first," Cora growled at the Freeshooter, forgetting her keyblade for a moment as she balled her hand into a fist and punched the gun to the side. This shocked Xigbar enough for her to roll away, push herself back up and charge at the man, hacking at him with Smoke on the Water.

"Slow down, cowgirl, fighting me like this. Don't you think you're making Thomas a little jealous?" Xigbar asked, laughing lowly. Fuck him and his inability to stay serious in a fight, Cora thought, not letting up a bit, no matter how many times she was shot with a laser. That wasn't important. What was important was getting rid of every single Organization member trying to steal her for the Organization.

"Jealous of getting his ass kicked? I'm sure," Cora hissed smartly. As she realized that she was beginning to sound like Thomas, she stabbed him once with her keyblade, though she was mostly angry at herself. Plus, she was getting impatient; they had only been fighting for about five minutes, but surely it would last much longer.

"Jealous of me getting so much attention, dude." Wham. Another hit. Like Cora really needed to hear about Thomas at a time like that.

Meanwhile, Demyx was actually _skillfully_ avoiding most of Riku and Dolan's attacks. Dolan's attacks, however, were relatively easy to avoid. Still, Riku and Cora were extremely surprised at how much better he had gotten. It was probably because he had learned the subtle art of teamwork.

"Dance, water, d-" Before Demyx could finish his sentence, he felt Riku's grip on his neck. He was growling at the man, frustrated with his hair tousled to the point of extinction.

"Don't say that. Ever again." Riku threatened him, and before Demyx could react, he threw him backwards into the air, and then threw Way to Dawn out in front of him like a boomerang, slicing across Demyx in the air, and then returning to him. **Author's Note: That would be an awesome reaction command. Triangle- Threaten Demyx, throw Demyx. xD**

"Demyx, we gotta go back," Xigbar commanded his friend as he began to panic, overwhelmed by Cora now, who had gone into some sort of a blind fury from a source that Xigbar couldn't find.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Demyx told him, and they backed up into portals. Cora ran towards the open portal in a rage, but Riku pulled her back by the collar of her shirt.

"Wait, Cora!" he shouted at her, and once the portal closed, he said, "Umeko and Axel are going to take care of the Organization, remember? Our goal is to find a way into the Realm of Color and lock the Door of Color for good. Then, if the Organization isn't gone by then, that's when we'll get them."

"So we just keep knocking them around like pinballs? I'm getting sort of sick of being attacked," Cora reminded Riku, and as Riku sighed, she continued, "Even though he's friggin' scary, I wouldn't mind Thomas just coming and trying to take me to the Organization himself. At least he's got the same powers all the time." She faintly remembered Lexaeus's annoying rocks and his earth powers.

"King Mickey and King Amory won't be that much longer, I'm sure," Riku reassured her.

"Aww, it was too bad, I was having fun destroying crazy, heart-hungry monsters with a giant key," Dolan remarked sarcastically, but unfortunately for him, Riku and Cora didn't have enough energy to get upset with him. "What do we do now?" he asked after a silence, swinging One Nightmare by its handle impatiently.

"Get rid of the rest of the Rhapsodies," Cora said flatly, suggesting her not being in the mood for conversation.

"Hey, Cora?" Riku asked, and Cora, who had started farther into the town, turned around. Before she could ask what he wanted, she found herself in an embrace. "Thought you might need it," he said into her hair as they hugged.

"Aww," Dolan said in a surprisingly cute voice and he joined in on the hug.

"We'll find the passageway into the Realm of Color, close the door, and beat Thomas. I promise you." Cora, much to her surprise and the other two, gave them another big, genuine smile when they pulled away. "You should really do that more often," Riku said, reminding her of the time she smiled in the Gummi ship, "you're smile is gorgeous."

Cora tried to hide her face as it glowed twelve shades of red.

* * *

**Snow White's Cottage: The Queen's Courtyard**

"You must be the queen," Sora noted dutifully, and then looked at the small cage perched on top of one of the trees in the beautifully vegetated courtyard, "why in all of hell did you steal Grumpy?" Sora asked, genuinely confused. Even the usually calm, collected, even slightly emotionless Blaise had his face screwed up in concentration.

"To lure you out, of course," said the queen in her thick accent as she grinned.

"What'd I say?" Goofy asked, determined and yet slightly proud of himself. "Whaddya want us for, queenie?" Goofy questioned the tall, pale woman angrily now, pointing his shield threateningly at her.

"A certain Heartless told me that if I can destroy you three, that mage's Save the Queen would be all _mine_!" She laughed giddily, and Donald gasped, pushing his staff behind his back in a pathetic attempt for the woman not to see it, "And destroy you, I shall!" she finished, threateningly pointing her own staff at the four of them.

Wind began to flow fiercely from the staff, pulling the four of them in. The queen's crown even fell off behind her and her cape flew around her like a halo of darkness, but she didn't seem to care at all. As Sora, Blaise, Donald and Goofy held their ground, the queen began to transform suddenly into a _giant dragon_.

"What did I say?" Donald asked angrily, "Just like Maleficent! Get original!" he shouted, but he was obviously the most offended, having the ownership of his staff threatened just like that, after all. However, the offense that he took shouldn't have gone as far as it did, as he started charging blindly at the giant, black and white dragon with his staff.

"Donald!" Sora and Goofy both shouted at once as he was quickly knocked back by the dragon's tail. Sora, outraged, next charged at the dragon, avoiding its tail. It wasn't long before Goofy and Blaise got in on the fight as well. **Author's Note: Since I'm a lazy ass, I'm not going to finish up this fight, leave it to the imagination. Dx**

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Bringer of Light's Room**

"Coy?" Anixens asked, raising her eyebrow, unsure. Sure, the boy had been less than willing to be changed into a Rhapsody when the Superior had made her change him, but she expected him to do exactly what the twelve other members of the Organization did; blindly follow Thomas. It didn't make sense, but that's what they did.

Coy nodded, but instead, Umeko and Axel, jawdropped, had shouted, "_Naminé_?!" as if she had risen from the dead, which, technically, she had done. "How are you...?" Axel couldn't even finish his sentence before Naminé put one hushing index finger to her lips. Ignoring her, Axel and Umeko ran up to the Nobody and brought her into a bone-crushing hug; Umeko had only known Naminé for a little while and she still missed her.

"It's a long story and I'll tell you later, but first, Demyx and Xigbar are here alone in the castle. Cora, Riku, and some new keyblade wielder, Dolan, did a real number on them, so they're also weak. I'll explain everything after we beat them, deal?" Naminé was so determined, Umeko and Axel were impressed.

"I'm missing something," Nix shook her head, "but I'll help out. Where are they now?"

"Hall of Empty Melodies," Naminé replied, "I can't make a portal anymore because I left the darkness behind me along with Roxas because of Sienna," there it was, that name again, "but maybe you can, Sienna."

"Call me Nix," Anixens told the girl, shaking her head violently as she stood up. After a year of being called Anixens or some variation of it, she wasn't quite ready to be called Sienna yet. After all, she wasn't Sienna. Not technically. That would be like calling Naminé Kairi. "And yeah, I can," she assured them, standing up and putting her hand forward. A portal appeared.

"I could've," Axel mumbled, the first to step through the portal. Axel, Umeko, Nix, Coy and Naminé weren't the least bit shocked to end up straight in the center of Hall of Empty Melodies, the giant platform being as, well, empty as ever, except of course for the Melodious Nocturne and the Freeshooter, conversing and gasping for air.

"Nixy- wait, who are you...?" Demyx asked, suddenly full of energy, crossing his arms across his chest, trying to be important. "Axel and the new girl... the prince of Eventide Mountains and Naminé?" he asked.

Suddenly, Umeko's gaze drifted towards Coy confusedly, "You're the prince of Eventide Mountains?!" she asked, both excitedly and nervously. No wonder he was chosen; being the prince of a world of mages, he must have been one of the strongest. Coy nodded, his gaze not moving from Demyx's.

"Hey Demyx, I think they're trying to kill us," Xigbar said, not before laughing as he noticed all of their weapons appear in their hands, except for Coy's and Naminé's. Naminé just sent out multiple Advanced Dancer Nobodies.

"Naminé, try and summon a keyblade!" Umeko called over to Naminé.

"I can't," Naminé called back to her, "I was created from both Sora _and_ Kairi, but that was before Kairi could wield a keyblade. I can't do it."

"But you did during the fight with Thomas," Umeko argued.

"That was a one-time thing, I'm sure of it. Besides, that keyblade was destroyed when I faded into the darkness," Naminé seemed to have stuttered over the word 'darkness' for a moment as if it really did a number on her.

"You might be able to!" Umeko shouted back, "Keyblade wielding can rub off on people. Just the influence of a keyblade wielder can make you able to hold one, that might have even been what happened with Kairi."

"Umeko, I _can't_!"

"Naminé, _I think you can_!"

And just like the little engine that could, Naminé pushed out her hand, and with a burst of power, a keyblade materialized in her left hand. It was almost as beautiful as she was. The handle of the keyblade was dotted with stars and in the center of the shaft was a crescent moon shape, finally leading up to the teeth of the key which were shaped like shooting stars. The keychain was nothing other than Naminé's charm. "Oh my God..." Naminé mumbled and her Advanced Dancers disappeared, "I _can_!"

"You really shouldn't have betrayed us," Xigbar said slyly to Anixens, rushing at the girl. She stumbled backwards but blocked with Origins of Nothing, her practice with her Nobodies really getting her somewhere. After a few clashes of ammo-on-keyblade, she managed to get close-range to Xigbar and knock him backwards to Umeko.

"_Another_ one?" a tired Demyx exclaimed, looking at Naminé before he ran towards them with his Sitar. Naminé was a natural with her new keyblade, thwacking it out of the way immediately. Of course, it would make sense; she had been inside of Kairi for quite some time during the time that Sora had trained her.

Umeko and Axel, however, were dealing with Xigbar while Coy, Naminé and Anixens handled Demyx. Nix was also extremely skilled with her Reverse Origins of Nothing, a keyblade created simply from the separation of Sienna from her Heartless and Anixens. Coy's powers reminded Umeko eerily of a normal Rhapsody's, a mixture of darkness and brute strength. One punch by the boy had sent Demyx flying backwards.

Cora, Riku and Dolan must have done an amazing job on these two, because within moments, Demyx and Xigbar were both down in the entrance, darkness swallowing them up. "The Bringer of Light," Xigbar laughed a little bit looking up at the ceiling from where he lie on the floor, "now I understand." Before Nix could ask him, he faded into the darkness forever.

"Good riddance," Axel said, and then started to count on his fingers. "Nine to go. Xemnas, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Saïx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene."

"Not quite," Naminé said happily, and even Coy looked a little proud. "Earlier, before you guys managed to gani Marluxia's trust, he had left Xaldin and Zexion alone. It took us a little bit of effort, but we got 'em." She looked at her white sandals. "I wish that I could summon a keyblade then. It would have been easier than just leading an army of Advanced Dancers."

"That's _great_," Umeko said, grinning, "So, seven to go. Xemnas, Vexen, Lexaeus, Saïx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene. Any idea of when any of them will be alone?" the blond asked the Nobody hopefully, who just kept looking down at her shoes.

"When I overheard the schedule, tomorrow at about midday, Vexen, Luxord and Marluxia are supposed to be here alone. It's three people, so if any of them get away, they can notify the rest of the Organization. It's a stretch."

"Oh, how I long to kill Marluxia," Axel said, laughing, "we'll do it. We'll just split up. Coy and Umeko, you two can take care of Vexen. Naminé and Nix, get Luxord. He likes to play games, and you two know the Organization just as well as I do, so you know his tricks. _I'll_ get Marluxia. Got it memorized?"

"All on your own?" Umeko asked, raising an eyebrow. For the couple of days that she had been stuck with this Nobody, she had gained a newlyfound motherlike worry for him and his crazy actions. He waved her off.

"All on my own. Tomorrow at about midday?" he looked back at Naminé. She nodded.

"But let's get out of here before we look suspicious. I'm supposed to be 'captured and detained in an inescapable room'." Naminé told them, and they decided to make their way back up on foot.

Umeko smiled, "Now you have to tell us what happened. Why are you back?"

* * *

**Snow White's Cottage**

"Oh, thank you for bringing back Grumpy!" Snow White exclaimed happily, welcoming in the small dwarf with open arms. It wasn't an easy fight, but at least they knew that Thomas was definitely out to destroy them now. And most of all, Donald got to keep his staff for himself, which was always a plus.

"No problem," Sora said, saluting her slightly. "I think Blaise had a little fun with it," he laughed at the boy, who was still hitting the air with One Dream. Blaise was reminding Sora so much of himself that it sometimes pained him.

"_That. Was. Awesome_." was all Blaise said, on his first high from his best battle yet.

"You should have gotten me out faster!" the dwarf shouted as Happy and Dopey pushed him further inside the house, although the chain of usually inexcusable cusses followed soon after his release.

"That means he appreciates it," Snow White assured them, although Sora was frowning.

"Hey," Sora said, "you haven't happened to have seen any weird door around here, have you?" he asked, hoping that maybe she had found a portal to the Realm of Color, "Like, maybe really odd and regal and stuck to something that the door probably won't lead you to?"

Snow White shook her head. "I'm sorry, but good luck," she called to them as she closed her door behind her, not without muttering something along the lines of, 'and I thought that the queen was loopy'.

"Let's go pick up Cora, Riku and Blaise from Beast's Castle," Sora suggested, crestfallen as they started towards the Gummi ship.

* * *

**Olympus Coliseum: Underworld, Underdome**

If Kasa was any more covered in blood, she would have been redder than a tomato. Luckily, most of it wasn't her own. The three headed dog was almost down, although she could swear she saw six heads. Finally, with one fell sweep of her keyblade, the creature fell down, not even twitching or breathing in the slightest.

"_No_!" Hades shouted angrily, his blue self turning red.

"You know, if you get any hotter when your angry, you should really be turning into _white_ flame, not red. Red flame is the coolest of all of them," Kairi suggested, but backed away a little bit as Hades practically growled at them.

"Fine!" Hades said. As he snapped, the chains that held Roxas and Kairi to the bleachers were gone, and the barrier around the arena was destroyed. Obviously, he didn't want them going in to help her. He really thought that she would lose against his newly trained Cerberus. They ran down to greet her, both of them hugging her, even getting bloody themselves. The important thing was that she was alright.

"Now you have to tell us about Naminé," Roxas said, trying to make himself seem taller as he turned towards the god of the Underworld.

Hades furrowed his eyebrows. "Usually I don't keep deals, but seeing as you three still have the Olympus Amulet," he stumbled over those words; Cora must have really done some psychological damage on him. Roxas wondered faintly how she had affected Cruella DeVil, who was already partially psychotic.

"Well?" Kasa asked, gasping. Kairi was helping her stay up by pulling up her arm and muttering small praises to her, like, 'you did great', and, 'I knew that three headed mutt didn't stand a chance'.

"Thomas came to visit the Underworld, and we had a deal. If he gave me new, decent servants, I would pull Naminé out of the darkness. I can do that, being the lord of the dead and all, because the darkness is technically where a dead Nobody goes," suddenly he seemed very proud of himself for that, "but, of course, the servants didn't seem to like this world so they went to take over some place called Agrabah..."

"Rhapsodies." Kasa, Kairi and Roxas all said at once. They really didn't want to relive that at the time, so Roxas motioned for the lord of the dead to get a move on- a real one, and quickly. None of them were that interested in the details, just what happened to Naminé.

"Yeah, whatever, so I said only if he would tell me why Naminé needed to go back to the pretty little light realm. He said that he was going to use her to rearrange the memories of a certain Somebody that he needed to bribe the Organization to dump the world in darkness, so I was all, sure."

Roxas, Kairi and Kasa just blinked. Obviously, all three of them wanted to punch him very badly, but it didn't seem like that was an option.

"There you are," came Sora's voice as Sora, Donald, Goofy, Blaise, Cora, Dolan and Riku all ran in. Obviously, Sora had gone to pick up Cora, Dolan and Riku already. It made sense, they were pretty close to Snow White's cottage, "we were looking all over fo you guys. Why are you talking to Hades?"

"Naminé's back," Roxas said quickly.

"I know, I just got a call from Umeko. They took down Demyx and Xigbar after Dolan, Riku and I weakened him, which seems pretty hardcore. They have plans to..." Cora looked over at Hades, who put his hands up in a mock surrender and disappeared from the area in a puff of cartoon-like smoke.

"I know when I'm not wanted," his voice chimed over everything.

"They have plans to destroy the rest of the Organization," Cora finished up, "so when they're all gone, Thomas won't be after me anymore, and we shouldn't have a problem closing the Door to Color!"

Everyone was silent. "What?" Cora asked, now confused herself.

"You don't see it?" Sora asked, raising his eyebrow, "Thomas doesn't much strike me as the 'keeping up with bargains' person. I dont' think he much wants you to help complete the Organization with hearts anymore. Of course they'll help because if he gets you there, they'll make you do it, but..."

"But what?" Cora asked, still confused.

"He wants you there to rule beside him as sort of a queen of the darkness," Riku said, blunt and honest as usual, making Cora jump back slightly, "he's got something for you, that's for sure." Was there a hint of _jealousy_ in his voice? "With or without the Organization now, he's found the Realm of Color and he can let out as many Rhapsodies as he wants, until we can close it, that is. He doesn't need them anymore."

This time, _everyone_ was silent. "You're right." Cora finally mumbled. "And he wanted Naminé to rearrange my memories so I would think that I'd always been in the darkness with him. He's just using the Organization to try and get rid of all of you. How could I be so stupid?" she asked herself, slapping herself in the forehead.

"Aw, Cora, don't be so hard on yerself," Goofy comforted her, the tall dog walking up to the brunette and putting a reassuring hand/paw thing on her back and patting it, "we'll find the way inta the Realm of Color and stop that there Thomas. Plus, Naminé would never betray us. She never would."

Cora smiled and said quietly, "You're right, Goofy, thanks."

"That's what friends are for!" Donald said, walking up to her as well. He put his hand out, palm-side down. "Let's promise that no matter what, we won't let anything happen to Cora, and we'll defeat Thomas once and for all!"

"I'm in!" Goofy said, putting his paw in.

"Me, too, of course," Cora said, putting her slightly smaller hand in the pile.

A chorus of 'me, too's flooded through the Underdome as Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Riku, Kasa, Dolan, and Blaise joined in. As they broke, there was an ample amount of cheering. "Let's go back to Hollow Bastion now," Sora decided, grinning. "I don't know about you, but I could go for some sea salt ice cream."

"I'm in!" Roxas said cheerfully and they made their way back to the Gummi Ship.

Any doubts that Cora had that these people- and dog and duck- weren't her friends were entirely gone.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Umeko's Room**

The room was still empty and not made up, as it should be. It was eerily silent, as just minutes before Umeko had enjoyed hearing a rant about how careless Xigbar and Demyx were, going into battle with Cora and letting themselves fade back into darkness. She couldn't help but to snicker at this- yeah, during battle with _Cora, Riku and Dolan_. _Right_.

A knock on the already opened door snapped Umeko immediately out of it, her dirty blond hair flying into her face, but a quick wave of relief immediately flushed over her. It was just Coy. It was alright that he was there, too; he could just be on his rounds through the castle. "Hey, Coy," Umeko said, smiling.

He mouthed a 'hey' back, and sat down next to her on her bed, which was still perfectly made despite it being just after midnight.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were a prince," Umeko laughed, "I would have treated you more like _royalty_," she said, trying her best to roll her 'r's, which she could not do. Coy, overly expressive as always, let out a breathy and slightly soundless snicker. "I'm glad to have you around, Coy," Umeko said after a moment of silence.

She looked up at the prince who nodded to her, his expression more solemn and sure. "Coy, what do you think you'll do once we beat Organization XIII?" she asked quietly, "Will you go back to rule at Eventide Mountains?"

Coy chuckled, breathy and voiceless again, and pointed at his eyes. He left one still held the red Heartless symbol and the right one still held the black Nobody symbol. Plus, they were an eerie violet instead of their original light brown. "Riiiiight," Umeko said, sighing, "the whole Rhapsody thing. Maybe they'll find a way to reverse it."

Coy nodded, "I'm sure they can," Umeko said, moreso reassuring herself. "Hey, Coy?" Coy looked back at Umeko. "My family... like Cora's... was lost in the darkness. I love it at Twilight Town, but..." she paused, "If we make it out of here alive, could I come to Eventide Mountains with you?" she asked him.

The boy seemed genuinely surprised, but much to her joy, he nodded. Umeko's face twisted into a smile and she threw herself on him in a hug, one he quickly returnd. As they parted themselves a little bit, Umeko saw something in Coy's eyes that she hadn't seen before; a seriousness with maybe a hint of _romance_. Before Umeko could make sense of what it was, he pressed his lips to hers. For one amazing moment, he kissed her, and she was too shocked to return it. When he pulled away, Umeko leaned into him and kissed him back.

"I like this," she mumbled as he embraced her again behind his shoulder, "something you don't need words for."

**Author's Note: Aww, for some reason, I was very happy with this chapter. I'm just shocked that I was able to make one like this. And I'm sorry I bullshitted a lot of the fighting scenes, but I'm not exactly in an action-scene mood today. Anyway, please review!**


	13. Blood and Tears, They were Here First

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

_Blood and Tears, They were Here First_

**Author's Note: This chapter is exciting because it's the last one Lollipop will probably get to read before she leaves for her vacation, and I have to go to the wake tomorrow. So it's interesting, and even gives away a little something about the plotline of the maybe sequel.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Village of Dawn, Royal House**

"This is gettin' difficult," King Mickey of Disney Castle brought up as he ran through the secret Ansem reports for the third time that day. There were no hints about the Realm of Color or the Door to Color. It made sense, after all. Despite its age, it was a recent discovery. "Y'know, we could really use our third King up here."

"Ansem the Wise, former ruler of Radiant Garden?" King Amory of Eventide Mountains laughed, "Yes, if only he hadn't blown himself up last year. It was too bad, after all. Me being one of the only people he entrusted his hiding identity with, he was a great friend of mine. It's been... difficult. Very difficult."

"Aw, don't worry Amory, he died doing what was right. If we could get the Queen of Pearl Falls and the King of Amber Heights down here, though, things would be much easier." Mickey sighed, flipping through another miscellaneous report.

"The Queen of Pearl Falls and the King of Amber Heights both passed away in their fight to save their worlds last year. Their heirs are out there, with almost as much intelligence as them but not nearly enough experience. Even if those two kingdoms did get along, the Prince of Amber Heights and the Princess of Pearl Falls wouldn't be able to help us."

Mickey sighed, "I know, that's why I came to you. I just wish." They continued on their search through the oldest documents they could find for some hint of knowledge through Amory's library, one that held the oldest books and sources known throughout the universe. Still nothing, but they knew that they had to hurry.

Darkness had already swallowed up three new worlds.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House**

"No way," Sora breathed, looking over Cid's shoulder at his trusty dusty computer.

"Back up off of my monitor, kid!" Cid shouted at Sora, causing him to back up a little bit. He didn't know what was more sad; the fact that Cid wasn't letting him look at something so important, or the fact that this was very common.

"What does it say?" Cora asked curiously. She was a big computer and knowledge person, and when technology was brought into discussion she was very quick to help out or become curious. Plus, she typed faster than any of the other nine in the group had ever seen anyone type before.

"Three worlds are off the map, into the darkness. Looks like... Land of Dragons, Deep Jungle, and a place called Pearl Falls. I don't think any of ya've ever been to that world, but i'm sure your friends from Land of Dragons and Deep Jungle are worried right now." He took a moment to ponder, "Maybe ye'd be able to find 'em in Traverse Town."

"We did save it from End of the World," Cora thought aloud, "but we have more important things to worry about than the inhabitants of already destroyed worlds. We have to prevent more worlds from being destroyed; we can explain it to them later." She paused and said lowly, "I just hope none of them are gone."

"Something wrong, Cora?" Riku asked.

Cora shook her head. "It's nothing, it's just that about two years ago when I had first gotten the keyblade, Twilight Town was swallowed up for about a week. Nobody there remembers much because the wait was so short, but my parents had their hearts stolen when Thomas had scouted me out for the first time because they had my DNA. Umeko's parents got lost in the darkness. I just hope that didn't happen to other people."

"We'll make sure they're alright," Sora smiled, ecstatic to go kick Heartless, Nobody and Rhapsody ass again. "But Pearl Falls... what was that world?"

"That's a kingdom. The houses virtually balance on the water; I went to go there once, it was so awesome. Very wet, though," Yuffie came, walking into the main room and throwing herself on the couch. Obviously, someone was off of restoration duty today. "I heard the Queen died last year and all they have now is the King and the Princess."

"So it's a monarchy?" Cora asked, her question unnecessary to the rest of them, but thoughts were obviously buzzing around in her big brunette head. This was normal for them, rest assured.

Yuffie nodded. "The only one of five in The Jewel Alliance ruled primarily by the Queen."

"The Jewel Alliance?" Dolan, Kasa, and Sora all asked. The rest of them, the ones with less of a mouth, just continued listening.

"An alliance of monarchies, all of which keep a jewel in their home world. The jewels together can create ultimate power, able to destroy _anything_. Or so legends say," Leon/Squall announced as he strode in the room, obviously interested in all of the commotion.

"Who is the alliance made up of?" Cora questioned.

"King Mickey of Disney Castle, King Amory of Eventide Mountains, Ansem the Wise of Radiant Garden... the old leader who's dead now, though we're currently searching for a new one that's fit, and the new Prince Stash of Amber Heights and Princess Jocasta of Pearl Falls."

"Maybe we can get the alliance together, retrieve the jewels and destroy Thomas with that." Cora suggested.

Leon, however, shook his head. "We're not looking for the ultimate power to destroy him, you ten can do that on your own. We're looking for a way _in_ the realm to _get_ to Thomas. King Mickey and King Amory are on that. Besides, Amber Heights and Pearl Falls have been on bad terms since the dawn of time."

"It was just a suggestion," Cora mumbled, crossing her arms, "anyway, those were some nice fun facts for the day, but where do we have to go?" Obviously, Cora didn't like being wrong; she seemed quite impatient.

"Lesse..." Sora murmured, looking over Cid's shoulder again. "Yikes. Wonderland looks pretty bad. Blaise, Donald, Goofy and I'll go over there. Pride Lands, I think we can leave that to Roxas, Kasa and Kairi. And Neverland... the actual _island_, Donald, Goofy and I never made it there... it seems pretty bad."

"So, we'll do that," Riku said, speaking for Cora and Dolan, the usual group dealing with the questionable worlds.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, The Bringer of Light's Room**

"Everyone ready?" Naminé asked Nix, Umeko, Axel and Coy as she waved around Oathbreaker in her hand, getting used to the feel of her new keyblade. Axel seemed the most determined of them all, then again, his hatred for Marluxia ran painfully deep. If anything would drive him into the darkness, it was that.

"Been ready," Axel informed her, spinning his chakrams in false calmness, and he looked up at the ceiling as if looking for something. "Feels like he's in Where Nothing Gathers. Probably sitting on the Superior's seat, no doubt." He created a portal and left them quickly. _Somebody_ was interested in fighting.

Just as fast, Umeko and Coy were sent to go finish off Vexen in The Laboratory and Nix and Naminé went to deal with Luxord at Proof of Existence. Odd, he must have hung out there a lot. **Author's Note: For those of you who remember, that's where you have to fight Luxord in the castle.**

"Axel, what a pleasant surprise," the pink-haired Organization member spoke as he was, in fact, sitting in the Superior's chair. Axel sprung from the legs of all of the chairs and stood on Xigbar's chair, glaring him down. "Something told me that I couldn't trust you." He probably wouldn't have had the same thoughts were Axel not holding his chakrams.

"Just shut up and fade," Axel hissed at him, throwing both of his chakrams at the man, careful not to set anything on fire so there wasn't any evidence. From a small petal, Marluxia's scythe appeared and he reflected it back at the man. As he caught them, Axel rushed at the Graceful Assassin and hand-to-hand combat started.

Of course, Marluxia probably wasn't expecting a punch in the face.

As his head snapped to the left, he took his chakram and sliced a deep gash in Marluxia's throat. The blood sprayed everywhere, causing an unwilling Axel to look back for a few moments. When he got the chance, he looked at the man with wide eyes, although Axel had been practicing that move for him for a long time; he was _expecting_ an instant death, and an instant death he got. "Now, why didn't Sora do that?" Axel asked, grinning down at the man with barely a few scratches on his arms.

He disappeared into the darkness without a word, but a thousand petals. Down once, down easier the second time, he supposed. Axel half expected Marluxia to randomly appear back out of the shadows, but nothing of the like happened. Going to help Coy and Umeko was probably the best idea.

* * *

**Wonderland: Bizarre Room**

"Deja vu," Donald said shortly as he looked at the bottles on the table. He was reluctant to pick one up, but all four of them eventually took the drink and swallowed it. Blaise's reaction wasn't what they expected it to be; instead of being confused and helpless, he was interested and curious. For a football player, he was weird.

"I wonder what the Rhapsodies want in here," Sora started, destroying many Incisors. It was more difficult to see when they were large, but small they could see Rhapsodies flooding the place. It was unbelievable how much easier it had become for them to destroy these annoying monsters now; they used to take so much more effort.

"What do they want with _me_?" Blaise asked in an extremely upset tone of voice. All of the Rhapsodies seemed to be crowding around Blaise more than Sora, Donald or Goofy. The three of them looked at each other with eyebrows raised, and then went to help the, now drowning, Blaise with his problem.

A different kind of power, however, emitted from him.

Darkness flew around the Rhapsodies, strong enough to even knock them backwards. The usually quiet Blaise screamed as a figure came up from him with crazy, white eyes. "Blaise's darkside," Sora murmured, remembering all too well when, by Riku's control over darkness, he had to face his. Not fun.

Unfortunately for them, if they planned on fighting something ridiculously difficult, this darkside looked whimpy and could barely walk. "Wow. Blaise," Donald began, "you're not a really dark person, are you?"

Blaise, who had finally stood up, pointed his index finger up and opened his mouth, but then, admitting defeat before he ever even said a word, he let it drop back down to his side, shrug and shake his head while giving a sorry smile. Before any of them could get at Blaise's darkside, however, he rushed out of the room and through the wall.

"Great, a high-speed chase," Sora sighed and jumped off of the table.

"I love chases!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Be serious!" Donald told him. Then again, he would have done well to say that to Blaise, who was humming 'it's a small world after all' audibly as he swayed back and forth during his run towards the hole in the wall by the sleeping door. Goofy began to hum along with him, giving him a harmony.

"Hey, I like this guy!" Donald said proudly before being hit on the head with Donald's staff. Obviously, he was out of words. The chase ended quickly when the four of them found Blaise's shadow with his arms around the Queen of Hearts in the judging room. All of the Rhapsodies seemed to be threatening the cards, who were singing some fucked up rendition of 'Kumbaya'. The Queen of Hearts looked like she was going to throw up.

"Is this guy really a threat?" Sora asked, looking at Blaise.

Blaise put his hands up in surrender, "My shadow's never peeled off the ground before today."

"Let's just... go..." Sora suggested, and they all slowly left the area. **Author's Note: Yes, that was comic relief, and enjoy it, because a lot of crap is happening next. xD**

* * *

**Neverland: Mermaid Lagoon**

The island was definitely a place that Cora, Riku and Dolan didn't have a problem going to. It was warm and sunny, but somehow, different to each one of them. **Author's Note: If you haven't read the book, Neverland is different in the minds of each of the Darlings, but it's generally an island.** Mermaid Lagoon, which actually seemed calm and serene to Cora, was like death waiting to happen in Riku's mind.

"Something tells me we shouldn't be here," Dolan stuttered, practically gripping onto Cora's arm. She managed to wrench it away, as he was cutting off her circulation, and just looked at the mermaids.

"What do you mean?" Cora asked, "They're just mermaids, and there aren't any Rhapsodies here."

"Actually," Riku began, "I remember hearing that Mermaid Lagoon was dangerous during the nighttime from Captain Hook. Speaking of-"

"_Captain Hook_!" a heavy accented voice shouted. The three of them looked behind themselves to find a very pirate-y looking man with one hook for a hand and a pegleg standing on the branch of the tree, "Yes, it is I who is summoning all of the Rhapsodies! I'm sure you would like to know how."

Cora, Dolan and Riku exchanged looks of worry, before Riku began, "What Rhapsodies?"

"What do you mean, boy, what-" Captain Hook paused, and then put out his hands. Seven Balances appeared out of seemingly thin air. "As I was saying, it is I who is controlling the Rhapsodies! Thomas promised me a slice of power once he becomes King of the Darkness if I do so!" Man, what a horrible villain.

"Good luck with that," was all Cora could say before summoning Smoke on the Water. Riku pulled Way to Dawn and, though the reaction was somewhat delayed, Dolan yanked out One Nightmare from the air.

"You want to fight me? We'll see about that!" Captain Hook laughed, "With darkness taking over this world, it's my turn to manipulate what you children see!" Captain Hook laughed, but as Cora charged forward, she stopped.

All of her surroundings changed. No longer was she next to a pretty lagoon on a gorgeous and exotic island, but she was surrounded by a dark castle. What castle was it? She couldn't tell- everything was _dark_.

"Is this really what you're most afraid of, sweetheart?" came the cat-like voice of none other than Thomas. Cora snapped her head in the direction of the voice, and one light shone above Thomas's head. He was no longer wearing his white Organization look-alike clothes, but a very intricate black outfit with a silver crown on his head.

"Thomas, what are you _doing_ here?" Cora asked, on her guard. Try as she may, her keyblade would not appear in her hands.

"I'm not really there, that I assure you." This time, Thomas was smirking. Cora tried to run forward, but her feet were stuck on the tile that she stood on. "Don't bother trying, princess, you won't move." His expression suddenly became gravely serious. "This can't really be your greatest fear, can it, Cora?"

The scenery _changed_ now. How was everything _changing_? Next, she saw her parents. Weren't they Heartless, somewhere either destroyed or roaming? And her sister... they were inside of her house. And a crowd of Heartless were attacking them- Cora _couldn't fucking move_! "Mom! Dad! Emi!" It was too late. The simple shadows plunged into their hearts, one by one, and their bodies disappeared.

"_Surely, that can't be what you're_ most_ afraid of, Cora. Let's try one more time_." Thomas's voice rang through her thoughts. As soon as she blinked, though she was blinking back tears, she was in another area. Where was this? This was her _lair_. This scene was more familiar than the last two. She found herself bound against the wall by dark magic next to Riku. Thomas was fighting a certain girl with short, wavy platinum hair and the keyblade called Origins of Nothing. She sliced him deeply in the stomach, and the man cried out.

"_Thomas_!" Cora found herself shouting, but then her throat closed up. _What was she thinking?_ It was _Thomas_!

Thomas, however, was smiling, and chuckling at the ground. Everyone around him froze. As he stood up, magically changing back into his white Organization cloak, he walked towards Cora, still bound against the wall, smiling in triumph. "That's what I thought. This is your worst fear, isn't it? Me getting hurt? _Isn't that what you're after_, _Cora_?"

"Shut _up_!" Cora shouted at the man, "Shut up, shut up, shut _up_!"

Darkness began to fall around them, swallowing where she stood. "What is it, sweetheart? Have you fallen in love? With your enemy?" he chuckled and bent forward, licking a tear off of her face, "What would poor Riku think? He's fallen pretty hard for you, you know, I can tell. Haven't you fallen for him?"

"Shut up and _leave me alone_!" she cried out, pracitcally inaudible by her sobbing. Never, ever had she let her emotions get so... _out of control_. She swore to Umeko, Pence, Hayner and Olette. She swore to herself she would never let herself get swallowed into the darkness again. Despite these hopeful thoughts, more darkness began to engulf her.

"You haven't. You haven't fallen in love with Riku or me, have you? It's the darkness you're after. Stop fooling yourself, sweetheart, you don't do a very good job of it.

"No, I don't want the darkness, I'm part of the light now, the light..." Cora continued to mumble to herself, but the heartless growing around her faster than a disease was not dying or slowing in any way.

"Cora," he bent forward to only be an inch from her face now, "I thought you hated liars."

Even if the words that Cora had said were audible, she wouldn't have remembered as she felt herself get swallowed up. Everything was numb in a painfully beautiful way. She barely remembered who she was.

* * *

**Pride Lands: Elephant Graveyard**

The golden lion panted, having destroyed a third of all of the Rhapsodies in the Pride Lands. There was no difficulty except for the Rhapsodies there; it didn't even seem like anyone had summoned them. In fact, for the last few moments, everything seemed to have calmed down. Roxas sighed and looked at his companions, the tan and red lionesses.

"Looks like we're done here," Roxas said joyfully, stretching his hind paws. "The Gummi Ship should be here any minute, and then Donald can change us-" Kasa and Kairi had no time to agree before the ship had landed right in front of them. As they expected happy and expectant faces on the ship, instead only Sora, Blaise, Donald, Goofy, Riku and Dolan. Cora was nowhere in sight.

Donald quickly turned them all back. "We have a lot to talk about," Riku said quietly, not looking at the three other keyblade wielders. "Let's go to Hollow Bastion."

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Merlin's House**

"First thing we knew was that Captain Hook had changed the island so that we saw our worst fears, and then next thing we know, Cora was gone," Dolan said. He seemed to be taking it even harder than Riku; after all, Cora was the first friend that he had made in the group of keyblade wielders (and Donald and Goofy).

"How do we get her back?" Roxas asked quietly. There was silence for a moment before Sora, bless his brave heart, stood up and began.

"We have to go to The World that Never Was. I know we're not ready, but it's the only way to get her back. We all promised we'd keep Cora safe, and we all broke that promise, so you guys have to help get her back."

There was barely any hesitating, but they all ended up agreeing, and they walked outside, ready to get on the Gummi Ship.

"To The World that Never Was we go," Kairi said determinedly. She had never quite gotten the chance to know Cora very well, but something inside her told her that she didn't want to lose Cora. She didn't think anybody did.

"Not quite," came an extremely annoying female voice. That could only belong to one person. They turned to find their horrors realized; Saïx stood before them, but so did The Savage Nymph, Larxene. "Prepare to die."

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Bringer of Light's Room**

"That was easier than I thought," Nix said, smiling giddily, "that was sort of a rush, you know, killing Organization members. I had wanted to do that to Luxord for so long... so long..." she laughed, "_Do you want to play cards, Anixens_? Yeah, you motherfucker, let's play some fucking cards!" That was it. Nix had gone loopy.

Naminé, Axel and Umeko laughed, and even Coy gave a breathy snicker. "That's-" Naminé began, but then she widened her eyes. "Thomas is here, and he's got someone with him. Quickly, everyone, back to your rooms!"

As Umeko fled from Anixen's room, only one thought rushed through her mind: _Cora's in trouble_.

**Author's Note: Ugh, I'm sorry this chapter was so jumpy, I'm still trying to get back into the writing mood. Anyway, I hope you liked it, review plz.** **xD**


	14. There's Noone Here while the City Sleeps

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

_There's No One Here while the City Sleeps_

**Author's Note: Update for Lollipop because it turns out that **_**this**_** will be the last chapter she reads before she goes on vacation. xD And since she did it for me, I'm going to advertise on my fanfiction, which nobody reads, her Kingdom Hearts series. It starts with The Two-Sided Heart, A Nobody's War, Beyond Black and White, and the fourth one right now, Destruction in the Light. Read them, review them, seriously, they're good.**

**Speaking of reviews, I'm, as usual, lacking in them, so plz review. Even a small comment is helpful. D;**

**This chapter was inspired by Dear God by Avenged Sevenfold. I'll be having kind of a song-y section of this chapter, so I disclaim all rights to that song, and Kingdom Hearts. Dx**

* * *

**The World that Never Was: Corridors**

"Larxene and Saïx had better come back unharmed," Xemnas grumbled to himself as he walked through the corridors, carrying the unconscious Cora like a bride, but not very comfortably. "Zexion, Xaldin, Demyx, Xigbar, Luxord, Vexen _and_ Marluxia, all of them letting themselves slip into the darkness, after we _specifically_ told them not to fight that far..." Obviously, Xemnas was in a bad mood. "That just leaves Thomas, myself, Lexaeus, Anixens, Axel, Larxene and Saïx."

Xemnas finally reached Naminé's room. They had been keeping her in a completely inescapable room, because that witch had tricks. Xemnas's mouth could not have hung lower when he hit the code, opened the door, and discovered nobody to be in there. "..._Naminé_?!" Xemnas shouted, too tired to go look for her.

"Yes, _Superior_?" Naminé called, and Xemnas spun around, dropping Cora. Naminé was smiling in an odd way that he couldn't quite read, and said, "I'm sorry, I was just coming back from the kitchen. Never touch Larxene's chocolate. She has it booby-trapped, I'm not kidding you." She walked back in the room casually.

"Naminé, this room is supposed to be...! Ah, never mind, I'm too tired for this. What you have to do is take this girl," he stopped to pick up the unconscious Cora from the ground and lift her by her collar again, "and rearrange her memories. _She's always lived in the darkness. Sora and the others are her enemies_. Understand?"

Naminé nodded, smiling slyly still, "Yes, I understand."

"She is unconscious, so it shouldn't take long at all. And I will be watching from the surveillance window this time on Thomas's orders. I will also be inspecting her when you are done arranging her memories, so no funny business."

Naminé gulped. Oh. Shit. "Y...yes, Supierior," she stated, and conjoured a white chair right across from her own in the cell-like white room. There was no getting out of this now; she had no choice. She would have to mess around with Cora's memories. She didn't know how long it would take to restore them once she was done, but hopefully not the year it took Sora's.

As the door slammed shut, she saw Xemnas reappear into the window above her. She wanted so badly to call upon Oathbreaker and jump up there to beat the living crap out of him, but she couldn't do it alone. Besides, she, Coy, Umeko, Axel and Nix all agreed that they wouldn't go after the Superior until after they defeated Lexaeus, Larxene and Saïx. Naminé hated it, but she truly had no choice.

"I'm sorry," was all Naminé could whisper as she closed her eyes, focused on the bulk of sleeping human in front of her, and found the chain of memories hidden deep in her brain. Hopefully she had the same memories still in her heart.

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Borough**

"Larxene and Saïx, what are you doing here?" Sora asked angrily, gripping Ultima until his knuckles turned white. They did _not_ need more Organization members right now; what they needed was to get to the Castle that Never Was and rescue Cora. They_ promised_ that they would keep her safe. And Riku... he was _so determined_.

"Destroying you of course, kid," Larxene cackled, whipping out her throwing knives, letting them rest between her fingers like a cat's. "What, you upset that we didn't come for a friendly visit?" she asked the nine of them and laughed. **Author's Note: Cue the customary pre-fight battle of wits.**

"What have you done with Cora? We know you've taken her!" Riku shouted to them, pointing Way to Dawn at them threateningly. No longer did he remember intense battle strategies or getting to know his opponent before he struck, he just wanted Cora back.

"She is currently being... _persuaded_ by Naminé, but we can't have you interrupt in the middle of it, so we're just giong to go ahead and dispose of you right here," Saïx drawled on, wielding his claymore for a threatening pose before he lunged towards Sora. Everyone but Sora, Riku and Kairi were trapped behind a barrier.

Sora, however, managed to dodge the first hit, but he could practically _feel_ Saïx's Berserker form on his way, so he tried his best to thrash at the man. Larxene, however, was after Riku and Kairi, specifically Kairi. Maybe she was jealous of her- it was difficult to tell. They both barely managed to avoid her kunai, and though they were able to get close to her, they were quickly knocked backwards.

_Larxene and Saïx_ _at the same time,_ Sora thought angrily, knocked backwards by the claymore again. Using aerial recovery, he caught himself in the air and began to thrash at the Organization member again.

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Proof of Existence**

Axel and Umeko had decided to head over to Proof of Existence. If they pretended they were doing rounds, maybe Thomas wouldn't catch that they were against the Organization. He was, after all, much smarter than Xemnas or any of the other elder members, but that was because that, despite being turned human again, he had control over any and all darkness. He probably had shadows listening in on everything for him.

"I'm worried," Cora finally admitted, glancing at Nix's door and then down the hall. **Author's Note: I made their rooms around Proof of Existence because it seemed to make the most sense... xD** Axel, however, sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets on the side of his Organization XIII coat.

"I wouldn't worry," Axel sighed, "Naminé said she'd fake it. Even if she can't, she's got a backup plan, I'm sure of it." Both of them froze as a figure emerged in the room, none other than Thomas. Somehow, he looked a little less intimidating, strolling idly throughout the Castle. He did, however, catch sight of Axel and Umeko, and walk towards them.

"Axel," he grinned, looking at the Nobody. Thomas, when he was a Heartless, having gained his own personality and thoughts from the darkness creating his very essence, never really was like Axel or his Somebody. They had had a past, however, that much was obvious, but they seemed to have let it go. "I trust you're finding yourselves comfortable in your old home. You and... the girl," he glanced at Umeko.

"Umeko," she said sharply.

"Ah, Cora told me a lot about you," he said, "your flaws, your weaknesses." The smile that spread across the former Heartless's face made Umeko want to punch it, but she remembered that she and Cora had been pseudo-fighting at the time. Umeko couldn't have guessed that Thomas would say what he did next. "Like how obvious it is that you and your friends have been killing off my Organization. Tell me, Umeko, who else was in on it?"

Umeko froze before she stuttered out, "I wouldn't tell you," but soon found a chakram to her throat. She knew from Cora's stories that he was not the kind of person you wanted to fight with five or less people in your party, so she decided to choke out one last lie. "It was Axel and myself. That's all."

Thomas, however, seemed amused, and lowered his chakram. "Continue in the castle, destroy Xemnas, Lexaeus and Anixens if you must, they're of no use to me. I will, after all, be revisiting the Realm of Color tomorrow, and if all goes as planned, you can say good-bye to the Light Realm tomorrow at midnight."

He disappeared.

"He... didn't even fight you," Axel said bluntly, not even being able to come up with some clever line like he usually could.

"He didn't," Umeko started thoughtfully, "because he thinks that it's just you and me. He knows alone we wouldn't be able to get rid of Lexaeus and Xemnas; they're his strongest." She sighed. "At least I didn't give away Nix, Naminé and Coy, then we would have been Thomas food." She shuttered. "Was your Somebody anything like him?"

"I hope not." Axel paused. "We can't get Cora back, but Sora and the others can. I'll make a portal over there; since our cover is already blown, we can get Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Donald, Goofy, and those three stray cats they picked up. All nine of 'em should do perfectly."

* * *

**Hollow Bastion: Borough**

Saïx growled angrily, not exactly close to fading quite yet, but getting extremely pieeved with Sora. Larxene, despite her strength, was being beaten to a pulp mostly by an outraged Riku, although Kairi managed to get a few hits in during his blind fury. Sora and Kairi knew that _somebody_ really wanted Cora back.

"Saïx, we _have to go_. I'm close to fading!" an annoyed Larxene called over the fighting, narrowly avoiding Riku's attack.

She couldn't anticipate, however, when two people stepped out of a portal _inside_ of the barrier, and a chakram was thrown at the two of them, splitting both of their sides and sending both Saïx and Larxene instantly into the darkness. So much for that plan. "Axel, Umeko!" Sora called as the barrier broke.

Sora, Kairi, Roxas and Riku all greeted Axel and Umeko warmly. Goofy and Donald were extremely on guard with Axel but must have decided to trust him because he had given Larxene and Saïx the final blow for them. They were also introduced to Umeko, the one who had been feeding them information the whole time.

"It's been too long," Kairi said.

"I know," Umeko smiled sadly. She and Axel had been in The World that Never Was away from them all that time, after all, "we'll explain why we can come back here later, but first, you guys have to come with us to get Cora. Naminé could be rearranging her memories right now, and we have to stop Xemnas from making her make Cora too messed up."

"I agree," Riku said sternly, a look of pure determination on his face. He looked back at Donald and Goofy. "You two should stay at Merlin's house to help them in case anything happens." They both nodded at this. "And you three have to stay behind, you're not ready for the Castle that Never Was yet."

"No," Kasa stated, lifting her chin to try and look taller.

"What?" Riku asked, not used to being contradicted.

Dolan and Blaise stood on either side of her, and she repeated herself. "No, we're not staying behind. We're ready. Because of Kairi and Roxas, I learned that I'm actually a really strong fighter if I put my humanity behind me."

Dolan nodded. "Because of Riku and _Cora_, I learned about teamwork and strategic planning. I'm almost as good as Cora now."

Next was Blaise's turn. "Because of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, I learned that I have so much light in my system that even my darkside can't afford to be dark."

There was a moment of silence. "You can't argue with that logic," Umeko said, shrugging. "It'll be a little packed with the nine of us, but I think it's a good idea if they come with. While we're saving Cora, we can even destroy Lexaeus and Xemnas."

"Are they the only two left?" Sora asked as everyone exchanged confused glances.

Axel smiled smugly, "Umeko, Nix, Coy, Naminé and I have been doing some work."

"Nix?" Sora asked.

"Anixens, the new thirteenth member," Roxas had twitched at Naminé's name, just as he had at Anixen's. Sienna. "Technically, all who's left in the official Organization is Xemnas, Lexaeus, Anixens and me. We have to get going though."

"Right," Riku said, determined again, "for Cora."

Roxas nodded, "And for Sienna." The long and low whistle slowly cut through the air causing shivers to go down everyone's spine, everyone except Roxas. "Seriously, where is that coming from?" Roxas asked. This was at least the fourth time he had heard it.

"It doesn't matter," Axel said, creating a portal, "let's go."

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Naminé's Keep**

"Who are you?" the brunette girl rubbed her eye with her already clenched fist as she looked at the platinum blonde girl, her blue eyes looking sorry at the keyblade wielder in the seat in front of her. Xemnas had been watching the whole time, and he was waiting for the right answers out of Cora.

"My name is..." Naminé stopped herself, closing her eyes and smiling as she shook her head. "Nobody. You should go back to Thomas."

At the mention of Thomas's name, Cora smiled. Understanding, she nodded and stood up, slightly confused as to why she had been there at all, and left. The last thing she had remembered was sitting by Thomas, hearing his plans for the Realm of Color. They were _finally_ going to destroy those keyblade wielders.

Wandering down the hallway, she knew exactly where she was going. As she turned to a room, one that was elegantly designed from an open door, she found Thomas standing by the window, looking out of it thoughtfully. "Thomas," her voice chimed through the room, and she walked up to the former Heartless.

"Cora," for a moment, Thomas's face almost looked disbelieving, but afterwards, it seemed to hold a state of triumph. Smiling wider, he bent down to kiss Cora on the lips, applyhing more pressure than necessary. He was even more shocked to find Cora return it. Naminé had actually done her job.

But he had to be sure.

"Cora, tell me about your past again."

The girl blinked, obviously confused as to why he would be asking that question. "Well, I was born in Nibelheim and then moved to Twilight Town when I was sort of young. I gained the keyblade, originally chosen to be the keyblade's master, and my friend Umeko and King Mickey taught me how to wield it, but my heart, which was pure back then, was still weak," she said this with a bit of distaste, "but you learned about me and sent Heartless out to find me. They got my parents out of the way, and you gave me the option of darkness. I took it. Best decision of my life, I think." She put her thumb through her pocket and slouched lazily.

"Then what?" Thomas asked, his forest eyes not leaving Cora's golden brown ones.

"Then I helped you look for the eighth Princess of Heart, but Sora, Riku, Kairi, Sienna, Roxas, Naminé and your Nobody, Axel got in the way. During that period of time, I studied a lot about Heartless to try and find out how you were a Heartless but acted like a Nobody, but instead I learned that I could make hearts, so I gave you one, but because I fell into the darkness, even though I was the Princess of Heart, my heart wasn't pure anymore. Even though this wasn't what you expected, you decided to use my keyblade to trick the others into thinking that my heart was still pure. The dimwits didn't know that you don't need to _unlock_ the Door to Darkness and Kingdom Hearts from the inside as well, that rule only applies for _locking_ it. So they fell for your trick, and you managed to steal Sienna's heart so her Nobody could become a member of the Organization.

"Anixens, her Nobody, after a year of researching was able to do exactly what you thought she could, bring the Rhapsodies out of people, so you made an army. With that, they reproduced, and you discovered the Realm of Color and the Door to Color, which is directly connected with Kingdom Hearts. Any Heartless from Kingdom Hearts that exit through the Door to Color would immediately become Rhapsodies and drown the world in darkness. That, you plan on doing tomorrow." Cora smiled, proud of herself.

Thomas was also grinning. "Who are your friends?"

Cora's face screwed up in concentration. "What friends?"

"That's what I thought." He leaned in to kiss her again. Everything was going as planned. "Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll stick with me. Like a verbal paopu fruit. No matter what we do, we do together." His voice must have held some kind of forewarning with it, but Cora didn't pick up on it.

"I promise."

* * *

**The World that Never Was: The Castle that Never Was, Corridors**

"Here we are," Axel breathed after they had just gone up the ascent to reach the third or so floor, too afraid of the consequences if he brought their entire party of nine immediately up the stairs with a portal. "We should go see Anixens first, she'll probably be able to come with us."

"Maybe we'll see Coy on the way," Umeko said hopefully, but a grunt in front of them caused the nine of them to look forward, where Lexaeus was standing with his tomahawk pointed straight out in front of him. **Author's Note: For your own sake, don't think of that in a dirty sense... I'm sorry if I just made you think of that in a dirty sense. xD**

"Nine versus one. That seems difficult." Axel said, but he knew the tricks of the Organization. Before Lexaeus could create a barrier to block out the others, he threw his chakram at the man, and shouted at the wielders behind him, "Go, go!" The nine of them immediately began to beat up on the man before he finally faded into darkness. **Author's Note: Yes, that was some comedy genius. Can't you all just picture a mob of kids with giant keys destroying a man in a hallway?**

"It's down this way," Axel said, being the unspoken leader of the group. With a few twists and turns, they silently made their way to the door interestingly labeled, 'The Bringer of Light'. Axel pushed the door open to find Nix walking in a nervous circle around, and the first thing that caught her eyes were the people in Axel's new group.

"Who are they?" Nix asked.

Axel went around quickly, "Nix, this is Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Blaise, Kasa, and Dolan. Got it memorized?" **Author's Note: The one time I've ever been able to use Axel's signature line the right way... xD Alright, enough of the author's notes, I'm probably boring you.** Nix nodded unsure, and then began to point.

"Sora... Riku and Kairi... Roxas, Blaise, Kasa... and Dolan. Got it."

"Sienna?" Roxas asked, walking up to the girl. She seemed rather shocked that he had called her this, but she didn't say anything, so she must have been called Sienna before. "Don't you recognize me?" he asked.

Sienna's eyes turned into slants in concentration. Sighing finally, she shook her head. "I remember you in some weird dream I had, I think, where I was going up and down on platforms. That's it. I'm sorry."

Roxas smiled. "We were really close, when you were Sienna. You were great at making speeches."

"I suck at talking."

"You wanted to go into cosmotology."

"Cosmo... what?" Roxas could practically feel the distance between them growing more even though his feet were only inches from hers. This wasn't Sienna; she was gone. She had been for a year. Finally growing to accept this, Roxas shook his head and looked at the girl with an apologetic look.

"Sorry," he said, and walked back to the group, earning a pat on the shoulder from Sora.

"We've got to get to Cora," Riku said, "so to do that, we've got to get to Naminé. Let's-" Riku was cut short by Naminé, who cleared her throat. They all turned around to look at the distressed Nobody, back from the dead.

"Naminé," Roxas said now, walking up to his old companion and hugging her tightly. Though Naminé was momentarily disoriented, she returned the embrace. "I've missed you. I thought you were gone for good."

"So did I," Naminé said, smiling apologetically, "and I missed you, too." She looked at the rest of the group. "It's a good thing you all are here, because Xemnas was watching me the entire time. I had to change around her memories. We've got to go take her from Thomas, even if it means by force."

"Wait, how are we going to get her memories back to normal?" Riku asked worriedly as they began to make their way down the hallway.

"It'll have to be how we fixed Sora's- asleep in a pod under watch for at least a year. But what we have to worry about right now is how she'll remember all of you. If you give her time, I'm sure the memories that burned themselves onto her heart are still there, and her spirit's searching for them, I assure you."

"Cora... please be okay," Riku murmured, his pace now quickening.

_Dear God, the only thing I ask of you_

_Is to hold her when I'm not around._

_When I'm much too far away_.

They emerged into the room that Thomas was residing in, and Riku backed up a pace. He knew her memories were rearranged, but he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. Cora and Thomas were so close to each other and talking in hushed tones. Of course, their heads snapped towards Riku and the others when they arrived.

"_You_," Cora said sneering, a way that made Dolan and Riku, specifically, back up as if they had just been punched in the stomach. She pulled out Smoke on the Water and pointed it threateningly at the wielders. "What are you doing here? Why wasn't Xemnas stopping you?" she asked them angrily.

"Hush," Thomas commanded her, his usually playful face now full of anger, "Cora, we may have to carry out our plans a little bit early." Cora nodded and lowered her keyblade, but it did not disappear from her hands.

"What plans?" Sora asked, Ultima Weapon practically glowing with power.

"To drown the worlds in darkness, of course," Thomas smirked.

"Why do you even still _want_ that?" Kairi piped up from the crowd, "We know that you're not a Heartless anymore. You haven't been since late last year."

"Sweetie, it's the _darkness_," Thomas answered as he laughed as if that excuse was the only one he needed, which it very well might have been. Out from the front of the crowd, however, was Riku, who walked up to Cora, who actually backed up a step. Thomas didn't make a move to change anything, just lounged against the wall that he had recently had Cora boxed against and watched.

"Cora, snap out of it, it's me, Riku," he told her firmly.

Cora looked like she had just been slapped before she sneered at him. "I always knew there was something wrong in the head with you. You did go back to the light after practically being fed the darkness, after all."

"Cora, this isn't you!" He backed up a pace and pulled out Way to Dawn. "I'm not leaving here until you come back with the rest of us and Naminé can fix your memories." When he didn't get an answer from Cora, he put up Way to Dawn and pointed the keyblade at her neck. "Don't make me take action."

In moments, Smoke on the Water was at Riku's neck, pushing him back, enough to surprise Riku. The real Cora wouldn't have done this. "Don't make me _laugh_."

"Ignore him, Cora," Thomas's cat-like drawl came as he stood up to his full height, towering over even Riku, "We've got bigger fish to fry." He put a hand on Cora's waist just to see Riku's hurt reaction, and they disappeared in a flash of darkness.

"Cora..." Umeko whispered, the first of them to say anything in a minute.

"She really... _threatened_ me," Riku murmured.

_We all need that person who can be true to you_

_But I left her when I found her_

_And now I wish I'd stayed_.

A call on Sora's cell phone snapped everyone out of their dumbfounded trances. He pulled it up and answered the phone, not recognizing the number at all. "Sora, it's King Mickey. We're at Eventide Mountains, we think we've just found the way to the Realm of Color. Come over here as soon as you can," he commanded them.

"Yeah, sure," Sora said and hung up the cell phone. "King Mickey and King Amory think that they've found the way to the Realm of Color." There was only quiet after that. "We have to hurry, that might be where Thomas and Cora are.

* * *

**In-Between Worlds: The Gummi Ship**

"Hey, Riku?" Sora asked as he controlled the direction of the Gummi Ship while Riku controlled the arms. It was much easier with Donald and Goofy; they didn't let their emotions get ahead of them when they used the lasers, and they were usually a little more efficient, but Sora gave him lee-way. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Riku finally answered, destroying the last ship in sight for a little while. "I mean, I know that her memories were messed with. It just... hurts." Sora patted him on the shoulder slightly before they continued on their way. "But we'll be in the Realm of Color shortly. She'll remember us in her heart. Right?"

"Right." Sora confirmed. After all, his heart remembered Kairi and Riku those years ago.

_'Cause I'm lonely, and I'm tired_

_And I'm missing you again, oh no_

_Once again_.

**Author's Note: I'm tired and I have a headache, so that's where I'm going to leave it. If you're wondering about the song, I used to listen to this all the time, and when it came on my itunes, I realized how perfect it was for Riku and Cora, so I put it on. Please review. Please. Dx**


	15. Your Nightmare Arrives

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

_Your Nightmare Arrives_

**Author's Note: Here we are, the penultimate chapter! This isn't counting the epilogue, however, which will be in chapter seventeen. In there, I'll have a bunch of cool facts about the characters and story. I'll have to decide come the epilogue if I want to make a sequel to this. Due to the lack of reviewers, I may not... Dx Oh well, enjoy. This chapter, specifically the fight between Cora and Umeko, was inspired by Knights of the Round by A Skylit Drive.**

**I disclaim all rights to Kingdom Hearts and A Skylit Drive. But not my plot, Kasa, Dolan, Blaise, Umeko, Cora and Anixens. Those I own. Even if they aren't copyrighted. xD**

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Village of Dawn, Royal House**

The look of mixed determination and fury on King Mickey's face was not easily describable upon Sora and company's arrival. In fact, everything seemed quite uncomfortable, except the space. There was enough room for Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Naminé, Axel, Umeko, Kasa, Dolan, Blaise, Anixens _and_ Coy, who they had picked up before they left, to move around freely. "Are you all listening?" King Mickey asked the twelve of them, all of which seemed interested in the gigantic building they had walked in.

There was a chorus of 'yeah's and 'sure's before King Mickey went on, speaking straight to Sora though directing it towards everybody. "After a lot of research, King Amory and I have found the way into the Realm of Color, but I'm gonna need some help explainin' that." He suddenly shot a sorry look to Anixens. "King Amory?" he called.

Walking out of the hallway to the north of them, dressed in all white was King Amory, simply an older version of Coy, except with dark brown eyes instead of Coy's purple ones. His face went blank and his eyes widened, anything business-like about him dissipating. "Coy," he breathed, and walked up to his son.

Dropping his walking stick, he embraced his son, who returned it. "Coy, I've been so worried, but it looks like you're alright..." as he let go, he smiled, "I'm glad you're okay. But there will be more time for reunions later," King Amory began to address the rest of the group, "We found that the way into the Realm of Color can be accessed by a certain Nobody with immense concentration. Thomas obviously created his own way into the Realm of Color, but that is exclusive to him and whoever he wants to bring with him."

The group was following so far, and Anixens was clenching her fists so hard that she was forming half-moons with her nails into her palms. "The Nobody that can carry out this task is, naturally, Anixens. Because she can flip the makeup of a Somebody to become a Rhapsody, we believe she can also flip the makeup of a normal portal that Nobodies can make to the realm the Rhapsodies come from, the Realm of Color."

"I can try," Anixens nodded, surprised that none of them had thought of it before.

"But there's a problem, fellas," King Mickey sighed, and all twelve heads seemed to look at the mouse king. "The portal will stay up for as long as Anixens is alive and in the light realm. So she can't go with you." He paused, "And when you come back, we're going to have to get rid of the portal."

"No!" Umeko was the first to say, and she gripped Coy's arm to the point of the circulation being cut off, but he only put a hand on hers. Axel's head hung low as Naminé rested her head against Axel's shoulder for comfort- the four of them had grown so attached to Anixens, they couldn't just let her _die_.

"I'm afraid it is the only way," King Amory spoke, his accent a little more pronounced now.

"I'll do it." Anixens said, and immediately twenty-six eyes were on her. "I said I'll do it," she repeated, and then said more quietly, "Even if I don't remember it, I already lived a great life. I'm willing to give up a second one to save the light realm." Naminé put a reassuring hand on Anixens's shoulder.

"Anixens, you know, you're a hero." He took her by the hand and brought her to a wall that seemed the ideal place to create a portal, and held out her hand, beginning to instruct her how to create the portal.

Much to Umeko's surprise, Coy turned to his father and began making hand motions, obviously ones he knew not to use with Umeko because she probably wouldn't understand, and Amory nodded, and said, "That's a good choice."

"What did he say?" Umeko asked, curious.

"He said that he is going to stay behind in the realm of light to help guard the portal. He also said that it would be safer, because although he is now a Rhapsody," he stumbled a bit on that last word, "he doesn't know what will happen to him in the light realm." King Amory paused. "We might need more help to man the fort down here. We don't know how unstable portals to the colored realm may be."

"I will," Kairi said, nodding, "I'm experienced in everything Sora and Riku are, so there's no point in having three of the same kinds of tactics; he would know how to take all of us down. At least here I can help you fight off Rhapsodies and take care of Anixens to keep the portal open." King Amory nodded and smiled at her.

"Me, too," Axel said, scratching the back of his head, "I just don't want to go up there and fight Thomas. He knows my fighting strategies inside and out. But it's not because I'm scared, got it memorized?" Umeko, Coy, King Amory and Kairi all nodded. Of course they had it memorized; they had begun to memorize everything Axel said just in case.

"It's ready," Mickey called over in a hushed tone to the that would be going, Sora, Riku, Roxas, Naminé, Kasa, Dolan, Blaise and Umeko. The portal was like some kind of a drug-trip; as they all walked through it, it was as if they were walking through swirling paint, but none of it was sticking to them. This seemed to go on for a while, until they realized that they were definitely on a world in the Realm of Color- it was one they didn't recognize, but it had to have been the one that held the Door to Color.

Meanwhile, back at the Royal House, Kairi stayed close to Anixens with King Mickey to make sure that the portal would stay open. Axel, Coy and King Amory waited patiently, glancing around the area for anything that may interrupt the trip.

Suddenly, a flash of black occurred, and a Heartless that seemed to be shaped like a human with glowing yellow eyes zipped past them and into the portal. The figure was female, but that was all they could tell. "Who was that?" Axel asked.

Kairi's eyes were wide. "That was the Heartless that helped us in Agrabah," she stated.

"That was also the Heartless that helped save Cora from Thomas that one time, wasn't it?" Axel asked. "It's the one that's been coming right after those really weird whistles." Not another word was said, they just stared blankly at the portal.

* * *

**Realm of Color: World of Glass**

"I'm getting a headache," Kasa said, rubbing her temples. All of the flashing colors seemed to be too much for her; they were lucky that nobody there was epileptic. Aside from the colors, however, the world that they were in was actually quite beautiful; trees, bushes, and the path they were walking on were made of glass, shimmering off of the light red sun above them and the small blue one slightly behind the red sun.

"Quit complaining, Kasa," Dolan grumbled as he continued walking. "It's so quiet here. It's creepy," he said, furrowing his eyebrows as he took a second look around him; everything was made out of glass.

"And that doesn't count as complaining?" Kasa asked, shooting a glare at Dolan's direction. They never would get along.

"Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends?" Blaise began to sing, but this time, both Dolan and Kasa glared daggers at the Mary-Stu next to them, and he stopped, smiling apologetically at them.

"We've got to focus," Umeko decided, playing leader as she had the tendency to do whenever she was in a group. She didn't often work in a group; in fact, most of the time, she preferred to work alone. "It looks like we can't stray away from this path... or we'll fall into neverending color..." All of them were suddenly conscious of breaking the glass path they walked on, "so the door should be coming up soon."

"Cora... hang in there," Riku commanded her in a whisper, the only one with his weapon out. Suddenly, it seemed, Riku was the smart one. As they reached a giant glass platform, a Rhapsody seemed to rise from their reflections and stare down at them menacingly. **Author's Note: Kind of like how Darkside was created from Sora's shadow during Awakening, except with reflections, which have **_**color**_**. Get it? :D**

The Rhapsody seemed to be an enlarged version of the Hammerheads, almost looking like it was mixed with an Incisor because it had ten legs, all of which had hidden, sharp claws, and menacing, gigantic butcher knives for teeth. It let out a roar so loud it almost blew the eight of them off of the platform, but they managed to call upon their weapons before they got the chance.

"This is the second time we've had to go rescue Cora from Thomas," Umeko grumbled, jumping up to avoid the reverb of its head, which a couple of them got knocked backwards by, and she began to bash its brains in with Starseeker, obviously a little upset.

"Yeah, but the first time she wasn't willing anymore." Naminé said back, sending out light attacks that none of them had heard of before from behind them. "Pearl!" she shouted, sending out more light.

"Shut up," Riku actually yelled at them, laying a hard beating on the Rhapsody that they had been faced with it. To their surprise, the creature roared again, sending everyone backwards but Kasa. Instead, the creature's stomach morphed to be shaped like a cage as it flipped itself upright and sucked Kasa in, caught behind the bars.

"Kasa!" Dolan and Blaise shouted as they ran up, but the Rhapsody roared back again.

One Nightmare and One Dream seemed to work together in perfect harmony once they finally made it up to the stomach of the creature- who was suddenly standing on two feet- which was trapping Kasa. They bashed the hell out of it until the bars made up of who-knows what finally decided to give in, while Sora, Riku, Roxas, Naminé and Umeko worked on its other weak points. Just as the creature seemed like it was about to give in, it shifted again.

This time, it had wings.

"We can't spend all our time here," Sora called out to everybody.

Naminé seemed the most frustrated out of all of them, obviously not planning to lose to such an annoying, gigantic Rhapsody. "We wouldn't have to if everybody put their backs into it!" she cried out, knocking back the Rhapsody so far with Oathbreaker that it actually cried out.

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Village of Dawn, Royal House**

Anixens shifted uncomfortably, and Kairi and Axel's attention immediately went towards her. Before they knew it, Anixens was grunting and thrashing around where she sat (Kairi had placed a chair so she would be more comfortable during the wait) and began to grumble, "Big Rhapsody. Hurting them."

"I have to get in there," Axel decided, but Kairi's hand on his shoulder pushed him back, "What?"

"We need ya here, Axel," King Mickey told him.

"But _they_ need me _there_, too," Axel argued, and Kairi smiled, suddenly understanding.

"You're worried about Roxas, aren't you?" Kairi asked, and Axel's head jerked to look at her. "You don't have to worry about it. I worry about Sora and Riku every day, even when we're over at Destiny Islands. He can take care of himself. If he's anything like Sora, you don't have to worry about him."

Axel sighed. "I know, I know." After a momentary pause, he continued, "I just don't want to lose Roxas. He's my only real friend, you know?

"Only one?" Kairi asked, furrowing her eyebrows, "We're all your friends. Well, except maybe Kasa, Dolan and Blaise, but that's just because they didn't get a decent chance to meet you. You're not alone, you know, just because you're a Nobody." Axel gave her a long, hard look before grinning.  
"Got it," he said, smiling, "but you forgot about Anixens."

"No!" Kairi gasped. It was so obvious she wanted to swear. She put her hands on Anixen's shoulders and she began to calm down. Nobody could have guessed that whatever was happening in the Realm of Color would affect her directly, but she was the source of the portal that hadn't been closed, after all.

* * *

**Realm of Color: World of Glass**

"Is it done?" Sora asked, gasping for air. That had to be one of the most difficult Rhapsodies that they had fought so far. The Giant Hammerhead, now down on the ground, finally disappeared, most likely to the Door to Color. "Apparently," he said, once nobody answered him. Everyone then looked towards him again, except Umeko, of course, who preferred to lead.

"Where now?" Naminé whispered.

"Well, I guess-"

"Up here," Umeko called, looking at a glass platform slightly ahead of them and a few feet higher. She jumped up to it immediately, despite the protests of the group, and Sora quickly understood why she was so prone to getting herself captured. "Cora!" she shouted. The rest of the group tried to jump up to the platform ahead of them, but naturally, a barrier stopped them from moving forward.

"Umeko," Cora smiled at Umeko as she stood casually in front of her on the barrier, "It's been a while," she laughed as if there was some sort of joke. Glass trees practically lined this platform along with bushes and other miscellaneous objects- it was like an old store in which one would be afraid to walk around, afraid they would break something.

"Cora, come on," Umeko said, crestfallen, "I _know_ you remember me. Even if you don't remember being friends with anyone else, you _have_ to remember me." Cora gave Umeko a thoughtful look, and Cora nodded.

"I remember you. I especially remember leaving you and the pathetic excuse for a king Mickey to go to the darkness. And now you're trying to ruin our plans." Her eyes narrowed at the girl, any playfulness disappeared.

"You mean Thomas's plans. The plans that you were trying to help us stop. Cora, Naminé rearranged your memories on Thomas's orders. You've been on our side the whole time! We need you to stop Thomas- you're the only one who can convince him to stop!"

"Liar!" Cora cried out, Smoke on the Water appearing. She charged towards the blond girl, who narrowly avoided the attack. As she readied Starseeker, she was lucky to half-dodge Cora's other attack. If Cora had remembered still being friends with Umeko, she probably wouldn't have been that srong, because she would be hesitating. Umeko, however, was losing _because_ she was hesitating.

_Fight like she's not your friend_, Umeko reminded herself, although she could feel tears burning her eyes, _fight like she's Thomas_. Although it took a while, she finally managed to replace the girl in front of her with the image of Thomas, and even then, she had difficulty attacking him. Still, she couldn't just sit by like an idiot. She began to thrash with Starseeker, actually managing to get a few hits in.

"Still think you're my friend?" Cora asked, laughing as she knocked Umeko backwards. Umeko used an aerial recovery and knocked Cora into the air, but Cora threw down Smoke on the water, knocking Umeko into the ground. As the keyblade returned to her, she let out some sort of a huge Gravira attack, bringing down all of the glass around them in glimmering shards. They all seemed to avoid Cora, but cut Umeko down her arms and a little bit on her face. While Umeko was still down, Cora sent dark chains to bind her there, just slightly weaker than the ones that Thomas had used to bind Cora. Of course, she didn't remember that. All of the shards of glass hit the platform, and she walked up to Umeko.

"Cora, you're making a mistake," she tried to convince her friend. "You really don't remember it? You don't remember me saving you from Thomas's grip last year? We went back to Twilight Town together!" Even if she didn't remember, Cora was still listening, so it was biding Umeko some time, "Remember Pence, Hayner and Olette? You would always go to Pence for help with computer and science stuff because he was the only one that understood," Umeko laughed, and Cora dropped Smoke on the Water down a little bit, raising her eyebrow. "And Hayner always hit on you. _Always_. Well, he hit on me and Olette, too, he just hit on anything that breathes. And Olette always took you shopping with her because you were the only one in the group that actually gave two shits about fashion."

"Where is this all coming from?" Cora asked herself, her face screwed up in concentration. "I don't..." She shook it off and pointed Smoke on the Water at Umeko's neck, hestitating slightly herself, "So you do have some darkness in you after all, little miss light, you know how to fight dirty."

"I'm not... fighting... _dirty_!" Umeko freed herself of her bonds and flipped up, managing to size up Cora as she jabbed at Cora's heart with Starseeker, but not hard enough to break the skin. Cora's shocked face looked up at Umeko's, whose face had calmed to a sorry, but believable face. "I'm telling the truth."

Cora hit the keyblade away with her hand and mumbled, "Umeko..." Shaking her head in fury, she disappeared into a small portal of darkness, and the barrier around the platform disappeared. Sora, Riku, Roxas, Naminé, Dolan, Blaise and Kasa all jumped up onto the platform one by one.

Sora was the one to break the silence. "We seriously have to learn that whole barrier thing." A whistle sounded throughout the Realm of Color, and this time, all sixteen ears in the area were listening.

"It's back," Roxas murmured.

"What do you mean?" Blaise asked calmly.

"That whistle again," Kasa said eerily, "the one that helped us out in Agrabah. Was that a Heartless?" she asked as she turned towards Roxas, who nodded. "What Heartless do you think would be helping us?"

"Maybe a White Mushroom?" Sora asked, but Roxas shook his head.

"No, I think I know who it is." The whistle sounded again, and echoed, "And it's going to help us beat Thomas, I'm sure of it."

**Author's Note: Whoo, I thought there was where I should end it. :3 Well, hope you liked that chapter, I'll try to get the last one and the epilogue up shortly. The wake for my grandfather and everything is over, so things are a little less hectic up in here. Please review! And I mean that. It's lacking. Dx**


	16. In the Eye of the Burning

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

_In the Eye of the Burning_

**Author's Note: I'm freaking out here, the last chapter. Of course, I'm going to post an epilogue, but you get what I mean. I don't plan on making this very long, but definitely action-packed. This wouldn't be a good chapter if I wasn't listening to a song during it; it was inspired by Reila by the GazettE. Try to listen to it to get the full effect. xD I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Realm of Color: World of Glass**

"Watch your step," Umeko muttered, skillfully avoiding the broken glass on the platform. Her fight with Cora had left quite the mess, both inside and out. "One of her moves got pretty messy." Once she got past the pile of glass, she shoved her hands into her jeans pockets and continued walking.

"Is everthing alright?" Sora asked. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned in to get a better look at Umeko as they walked. Slightly annoyed, she looked back at him. Sora jumped back like he was shot at the sight of her face.

Umeko sighed, "Sorry," she grumbled, "I just don't like that if I didn't manage to convince her even a little bit that we were her friends I would've lost, that's all," she pulled her hands out of her pocket, "and I guess I'm just hoping that she believes me by the time we make it to the Door to Color. If Cora was here and that giant Rhapsody, which was probably guarding it, then the door's gotta be here."

"That's one positive," Kasa nodded, smiling.

"Wanna hear a negative?" Roxas asked, and everyone looked at him, just before looking at the glass path ahead of him. A split path, similar to the one Sora was forced to decide between before Castle Oblivion (even though those two paths joined) was laid in front of him. "Which way do we go?"

Before Sora opened his mouth to suggest splitting up, obviously one of his favorite pasttimes, a small wind blew to the direction of the path on the left, and comically enough, all of their hair began to point in that direction. Kasa smiled, satisfied. "I guess we go that way," she chirped, still grinning.

"If you start singing colors of the wind, little miss Pocahontas, I'm going to shoot somebody," Dolan threatened, gripping One Nightmare, pointing it upwards and shooting up some Firas. **Author's Note: You know, the cool shot-like Firas from Kingdom Hearts, not the stupid circular Firas from Kingdom Hearts II.**

"_Someone's_ been working on their magic," Blaise smiled and Dolan elbowed him on the side, all three of them laughing now.

"I remember when you guys first came on the journey with us you all pretty much couldn't get along," Sora laughed, "it's only been a few days and now you act like best friends. I guess forcing you to come along was a good move."

"Forcing us?" Dolan asked, putting his hands on his hips like a drag queen, "Not quite. You said that if we didn't help you that Song's Shimmer would be goe for good." Blaise and Kasa also laughed at this, because he decided to add his own special accent to his speech. Leave it to Dolan to be totally focused and serious in every time except when they needed him to be. He was actually pretty funny when he tried to be.

"Last I remember, you told me that you didn't like Song's Shimmer," Kasa said, "that you always wanted to live in the city."

"You win this round," Dolan said, grinning slyly and letting One Nightmare finally disappear. Suddenly, his face screwed up in concentration. "Damn that Cora, getting us all worked up like this."

"What do you mean by that?" Riku asked, maybe a little too quickly, although it was obvious that he left a little bit of leeway for Dolan. He was, after all, closest to Riku and Cora during the entire adventure because they were always stuck together when they split apart into the different worlds.

Dolan shrugged, putting his hands behind his head. "Cora's one of the strongest people I've ever met. She's getting us all worked up for nothing." Riku opened his mouth to argue- a natural reaction for anyone who's had to deal with Dolan for more than a couple of hours, but then closed it. Dolan was right.

Finally, it seemed, the scenery began to change. Red, black and purple were the only pigments left in where they were in the realm of color, and the glass beneath them was beginning to look more difficult to see through, as if it was tinted, or maybe _tainted_. "I think we're getting close," Naminé said encouragingly.

"I think you're right," said Roxas, who stopped dead in his tracks. The others stopped along with him and looked forward. Leaning against a giant, metallic red door swinging her keyblade around her hand just as one would swing his or her key around their fingers was Cora, glaring at the group.

"It's Cora," Riku breathed, and walked in front of the crowd, looking at the girl. She seemed positively relaxed, which caused him to raise an eyebrow. Still, he ran towards her, everyone following behind him, and walked up to her. "Cora," he began and the girl looked up at him through her hanging brown hair, "are you alright?"

For a moment, the girl just looked up at him. Riku was acting sort of_ funny_, he thought, he'd never been so into any kind of a mission before, but he thought that maybe he knew why now. He pulled Cora's hand from her side and gripped it tightly before he said, "I know that a lot of things are confusing you right now, but you don't have to worry about figuring any of it out. We can help you. All of us."

For a moment, Cora just looked down. When her eyes finally met Riku's she said in a completely level voice, "They're here, Thomas."

"What?" Before Riku could wait for an answer, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Spinning around, he found Thomas, too close for comfort and smiling maliciously. Before Riku could call upon Way to Dawn, he felt Thomas's strong hand on his neck. He was soon thrown about fifteen feet backwards, and Blaise charged forward, most likely gaining that confidence from Sora.

"No, you idiot!" Kasa shouted, charging after him, "There might be a barrier!"

"And you two aren't getting trapped in it without me," Dolan called. Sora, Riku, Roxas, Naminé and Umeko then went forward, only to be caught behind the inevitable barrier.

"They can't do it alone," Roxas called out, "they're barely ready to take him on with the rest of us helping!"

"We've got to give them a chance," Umeko shouted over the commotion, "we can't do anything as long as they're behind the barrier. At least we're safe."

"Not likely."

Umeko felt a sharp pain in her side that caused her to fall over and a laugh. "Remember our training, Umeko? Hell, that's _something_ I remember," came Cora, brandishing her keyblade, "Never be off guard. Fira!" Just as Umeko was getting up again, the Fira, which singed her arms, sent her back down again. "Expect the worst. You see, Umeko, you were _wrong_. I remember _everything_."

"Cora!" Riku shouted and ran at her with Way to Dawn, but as Cora avoided her first jab, he didn't make another move.

"Riku, you're hesitating," Cora soughed, but there was some odd realization in her face that suddenly turned to fury. As she sent Smoke on the Water down, she was surprised when Way to Dawn knocked it backwards, and then she felt the keyblade in her stomach. A parry of keyblades sent her farther back before she was finally knocked to the ground again. She smiled as she looked up at the wielder, "That's what I thought."

Meanwhile, Kasa, Dolan and Blaise were fighting Thomas within the barrier, "The three chosen wielders of Song's Shimmer," Thomas laughed almost maniacally, obviously a little overwhelmed by the three of them, who refused to yield. "Blaise, the one without a hint of darkness in him, therefore without a hint of strength," He laughed as Blaise lunged at him with One Dream and missed, "What are you, a Prince of Heart?"

"Shut up," Blaise commanded him without much real heat, more dedicated in trying to get a hit on him. Thomas laughed and threw his chakrams, glowing with blackened fire at him, sending him backwards. Thomas caught them at the exact moment that Kasa ran after him. She got at least three hits on him.

"Kasa, what a cold-blooded fighter you've become," Thomas cooed, "we could use you in the darkness after that change of yours."

"I'm _not_ cold-blooded!" Kasa cried out, feeling tears burning her eyes. That was the ultimate insult, but still she attacked with One Empty Sleep again, the keyblade practically glowing with power.

"Kasa, you dolt, don't listen to him! You either," Dolan called to Blaise, "He knows your weaknesses! _Ignore_ them!" He ran at Thomas along with Kasa, and Blaise managed to catch up. This time, it seemed harder for them to get hits in at all. As Thomas knocked back both Blaise and Kasa, he hit One Nightmare out of Dolan's hands and then put two fingers under Dolan's chin.

"You haven't grown soft, have you?" Dolan didn't have time for his tricks; One Nightmare materialized in his hand and he knocked Thomas's hand backwards, sending him farther away.

"We can't fight him alone," Kasa cried, running up but then getting hit backwards by one flying disk.

"Yes, we can," Dolan pressed, "but you can't let him get to you!" He paused, and thought, pointing his keyblade at the man, "Gravira!" Luckily, the magic seemed to work, sending him so far down on the glass that it almost broke beneath him. Immediately, however, the spiderweb cracks mended themselves. This world definitely was magical.

This scene was starting to remind Thomas of back when he was a Heartless, right after he had taken away Sienna's heart. After that, of course, while Cora was still unconscious, he had sent darkness suggestion so she could create a heart for him, and he wasn't a Heartless anymore right as he had left the fight. The point was, however, everything was being recreated. If that was the case, he could simply leave and commence a plan C if nothing went right. Everything seemed to be coming together. All of his doubts were gone.

Thomas got back up and charged at Kasa, sending her backwards.

"_Don't you touch her_!" Blaise shouted at Thomas, rushing forward and slashing at his stomach with his keyblade. Thomas cried out and pushed one of his chakrams into Blaise's heart, sending him falling to the ground, bleeding.

"Ka... sa... Do... lan..." Blaise muttered before he fell to the ground, his irises overtaking the rest of his eyes.

Blaise was dead.

"Blaise!" Kasa and Dolan both cried out.

Kasa ran forward, but a hand on her shoulder pulled her back, "Leave him," Dolan commanded her, "we have to get Thomas. It's what he would want."

Kasa, though she was tearing up, nodded as she pushed her fist to her face, chewing nervously on her knuckles, trying not to let the saltiness of her falling tears interfere with her concentration. "Okay." she stuttered, standing up.

Dolan focused his attention towards Thomas, "You're _dead_!"

Meanwhile, Cora, Riku and Umeko seemed to be evenly matched. Whenever Cora was down, she would be thrashed at by Riku and Umeko. Whenever Riku or Umeko was down, the other one would parry with her. Obviously the darkness had done her some good. "Cora, you have to remember. You can't keep fighting us like this!"

"I-..." Cora stopped, so Riku and Umeko haulted, and she shook her head in fury. "I don't remember a _thing_. But... it hurts," she mumbled, putting one slender hand to her heart. "I don't know why," tears were now flooding her eyes, "but fighting you is _hurting me_! What did you _do_?" she cried out in anger.

"This," Riku started, and before Cora could retaliate, his lips crashed against hers.

* * *

_This wasn't the World of Glass. What was Cora seeing? She saw herself sitting on the roof of some house, one she remembered vaguely as that of the sorcerer, Merlin's. She was in Hollow Bastion. This wasn't some sort of a movie scene, this was a _memory_. A vague one, but the blur soon became clearer. Riku, the silverette boy was sitting next to her. They weren't fighting, they weren't exchanging a battle of wits or spying on one another, instead, they were licking ice cream of some kind; Riku's was a slightly greenish blue, but Cora's was a pale blue, close to white. Sea salt and sky sugar ice cream._

_"You did a good job with Lexaeus earlier," the boy admitted. When had she ever fought Lexaeus? She had often commanded him in the Organization, she knew that much. "I remember fighting him back in Castle Oblivion. He wasn't easy." Riku was laughing, and Cora _smiled_. Why was she smiling?_

_"What you said earlier," Cora began, not before taking another lick of the sky sugar ice cream, although it was dripping, "about us being friends. Is that... why?" Friends? When had they ever been friends? Why were these memories coming back to Cora?_

_She _remembered_._

_"What do you mean, 'why'?" Riku asked, "If it's about Thomas, we know that you're sorry for what you did. You're a good fighter, and you care," Wow, that stung, "And I consider you a friend." He stopped momentarily to give Cora a meaningful look, "Is that enough?" With the hand that wasn't holding the ice cream, he pushed a lock of Cora's hair behind her left ear, and Cora looked back up at the boy._

_"Yeah," Cora said, smiling after looking at the setting sun, "that's enough."_

* * *

Riku pulled away. "Riku..." Cora began, and then stepped backwards.

At the same time as that had happened, Roxas, Naminé and Sora were working on destroying the barrier. Oathkeeper and Oathbreaker reacted with each other like brother/sister keyblades, glowing with an intense power as they were used. Even Oblivion and Ultima seemed to be doing a fantastic job, but the barrier was not shifting. "How are they doing?" Roxas asked, sweating as he continued to thrash at the barrier.

"Which 'they'?" Sora asked, gasping for breath.

"Whichever," Roxas called back.

"Cora, Umeko and Riku are all evenly matched," Sora admitted.

"Kasa and the others are having a hard time," Naminé breathed, "I think they're letting Thomas get to them. We have to hurry!"

"We can't break this barrier," Sora said, shaking his head and backing off. Roxas and Naminé looked at him as if he were crazy, just giving up like that, but Sora did have more experience than the two of them, so they figured that he must know what he was talking about. "It needs dark magic. It needs the power of-"

That beautiful, low whistle sounded through the area again.

"A Heartless?" Roxas asked, smiling despite his fatigue. The Heartless that had helped them countless times before, in a blur of black, came and shattered the barrier like it was made of the same glass as the rest of the world. As the shards of darkness fell, they disappeared halfway through their fall, and the Heartless, for once, stopped in front of them, and the small line in its face formed a smile.

Roxas had to smile back, "Sienna."

The Heartless backed up a pace. It was true. Sienna's Heartless, the same one that had helped them seal Kingdom Hearts the year before by walking through the door and locking it from the other side had been helping them the entire time. She jerked her head towards Riku, Cora, and Umeko. Riku had just pulled away from a kiss with her. Cora was _faltering_. Did she remember? Roxas looked back where the Heartless was standing. She smiled and put a small kiss on Roxas's cheek.

"Sienna... you're here."

It seemed that the Heartless had laughed, amused, but she took her right hand and pushed Roxas's face slightly to his left, facing the shocked Naminé. Their faces were extremely close. Sparks flew between them that Roxas had never known to exist before. When he twitched to his left to see where Sienna had been standing, she disappeared.

"She's been helping you the whole time," Naminé said, tears in her eyes. "Sienna never would get up, not even as a Heartless." Roxas, did he feel tears welling up as well? He nodded his head; he had spent the past year mourning both Sienna and Naminé's deaths, but Naminé had returned to them and Sienna was always with him.

"Roxas..." Naminé started, looking down at her own feet. She felt a hand under her chin, pushing her head up to look at him, and felt his lips against hers. They tasted both sweet and salty, and after the initial shock, Naminé kissed him back. When they parted, they felt odd waves between them, both comforting and scary at the same time. She didn't taste like Sienna; she was _different_. The kind of different he had been searching for since they both left him.

"Thomas," Roxas said, straightening up, "we have to go fight him. They've got Cora."

Cora, however, had backed up slightly, and said to Riku, "Riku... You're... I don't really..." She was trying to form a sentence, but she didn't know how. She didn't remember being allies with them, but she had small memories, little fragments. She didn't think them, she _felt_ them. Riku and her were friends. Maybe something more.

Roxas charged up at Thomas when he was off guard, and he cried out. He couldn't take much more; before Cora could think of anything, she felt Thomas by her side and a hand on her wrist, being dragged into the realm of darkness.

"Thomas!" Cora called out, "Stop, I don't know how, but they're my friends," She managed to wrench her hand away from his grip, and he looked her straight in her chocolate brown eyes, "and you messed with my memories."

"I did," Thomas breathed. She looked down at his stomach.

"You're hurt," she spoke, ignoring the swirling darkness around them. There was a large, bleeding gash in his stomach. His left had gripped it, and he shook his head.

"Nothing the darkness won't cure. It has before." He thought back to when Sienna, the wielder destined to fall into the Realm of Nothingness had almost fatally injured him. Cora wasn't averting her gaze at all. Fake memories or not, she had been close to Thomas. She was afraid for him.

"Thomas, look out there," Cora said, though not moving her gaze, "they all live in the light, all the time. They're never hurt. On the outside, maybe, but they don't have the darkness slowly taking over every fabric of their _being_." Was her voice pleading? "Thomas..."

"You're not suggesting I go to the realm of light, are you?" Thomas laughed, "I'm not giving up that easily. I can't choose where you go anymore, but I refuse to reside in the realm of light. I refuse." His voice was shaking and he was breathing heavily before he fell on his knees, but Cora fixed him with a stern look.

"It's not your choice. It's mine." He looked up at her, his face surprised, "Earlier today, you made me promise you to stick with you no matter what. That's two-sided, Thomas. You have to stick with me." Thomas hung his head lower- if she didn't do something soon, the former Heartless was going to die. "Thomas."

Thomas looked up at her, his eyes wide but unforgiving as she stood up and extended a hand towards him. "I won't let the light hurt you." He was breathing heavily still, and his hand wasn't moving. "That's a promise."

Something crazy must have come over Thomas. Something must have changed his viewpoints entirely. The darkness must have kicked him out.

Thomas must have fallen in love.

He took her hand.

"Cora!" Riku's voice shouted, leading them into the light.

* * *

**Eventide Mountains: Village of Dawn, Royal House**

"Cora... Cora, wake up!" This time, the voice was that of a girl. Cora blinked a few times; it was too early, she didn't have to do anything yet. Sensing the urgency in the voice, she blinked a couple of times and opened her eyes. The heads of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Axel, Roxas, Naminé, Kasa, Dolan, Coy and King Mickey were floating above her. The voice had come from Naminé.

"She okay?" came another voice, but not from anyone else in the group. Pushing herself up, although her head was swimming, she looked past the crowd of slowly parting faces. Thomas was leaning against the wall of the royal house. He no longer had his white Organization cloak on. Instead, he was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, and he was bandaged up. His hair was completely black now, all of the red in it gone.

"What happened?" Cora asked, wincing from her own pain.

"You saved Thomas from the darkness. You were both knocked out for a while, but he came out of it quicker," Naminé smiled, "We locked the door and now no more Rhapsodies can come out. But... there were some casualties."

"Who?" Cora asked. She knew that she fleetingly remembered this place, but she didn't have any sticking memories. She still remembered Thomas and her times with him the best, but she had to trust in them. They were _helping_ her, after all. She had bandages on all of her wounds, and Thomas was safe. He looked a little different, but he was safe.

"Blaise was killed." Kasa started, shifting as she blinked back a couple of tears, but an eager to comfort Axel put his arms around her, calming her down.

"And of course, Anixens died when you all left the portal. It was the only way ta close it," King Mickey said, "and also, King Amory passed from a small explosion when he was creating the antidote for a Rhapsody." He was quiet for a moment, "But he restored Coy." He motioned to the boy, the first one that Anixens had made a Rhapsody. His eyes were back to their light brown and he no longer had markings on his face.

"Who will take over... Eventide Mountains?" Cora asked, the memory barely coming to her.

"I will," an unfamiliar voice sounded.

Every head twisted back to Coy.

"Coy..." Umeko murmured, "you talked."

"It must have been an effect of the antidote," Coy spoke. His voice was shaky and unsure with a little twinge as if he hadn't spoken in his life, which, in truth, he hadn't. "But... it'll need some work," he laughed. Umeko threw her arms around him, and he embraced her back.

"You'll make a great king, Prince Coy," King Mickey assured him.

"What happens now?" Cora asked, her voice low.

"I'll need to contain you in a pod for a year, I'm afraid," Naminé said, "to restore your memories."

Cora sighed. It's not like she had to worry about keeping up with school, anyway; there was always some trouble between the worlds. Even if she had to go to college one day, helping save the worlds from ultimate destruction should at least give her a scholarship. "I understand," she finally said. "Umeko," she said to her friend, and the blond twisted her neck to look at Cora, "Thank you."

The girl nodded, tears trickling down her face.

"Cora, you know," Riku started, offering a hand to get her off of the ground, "you're a hero."

Cora shook her head, "I'm no hero. It wasn't my strength that brought Thomas into the light, it was his own." She looked at the former heartless, whose eyes were narrowed. Were they a shade lighter.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, grinning, "but I want to be able to check up on Cora when she's under the scalpel," he joked, reminding her of some sort of surgery room.

"So you're going to stay in the light realm?" Cora asked.

"With persuasion," Thomas began. Cora raised an eyebrow, very unsure of how they had persuaded him to stay. "So I take it that you and Roxas will be staying at the Radiant Garden castle so I can check up on her there?"

Roxas seemed to like being thought of as a pair with Naminé. "Yeah," Roxas said, nodding his head.

Cora was confused; aside from the question as to, why the Radiant Garden castle, she had a thousand other questions, all of which would have to wait a year. She sat back down on the couch she had been woken up from, and her heavy eyelids forced her back into a sleep. Her last thought was that when she woke up, she would be sixteen going on seventeen; a year in silence would have passed.

**Author's Note: There we are, the last chapter. Of course, I'm going to post the epilogue shortly, but I hope you guys liked it! Sorry I got rid of Blaise, but it just sort of... happened. And actually, I had King Amory's death planned for a while. What I didn't plan was Coy getting the ability to talk! That is to say, the antidote restored every human trait to him, even his voice.**

**In the epilogue, I'll explain what happens over the year that Cora is asleep, or at least quite a bit of it, and I'll have some fun facts about the fanfiction and the characters afterwards. I **_**might**_** make a sequel.**

**See you in the ep!**


	17. Epilogue

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

_Epilogue_

Although it took about a week, Sora and the others helped go through the worlds, giving any of the remaining Rhapsodies antidotes and rides to their home towns- most of them seemed mentally scarred from their time working under the orders of the Organization; Sora was relatively sure it had nothing to do with being a Rhapsody.

Coy took over at Eventide Mountains, where he belonged. Umeko, as promised, was given the royal treatment; a great room in the royal house. She did, however, have a job; walking all of the dogs (Coy had seven) and helping teach Coy how to pronounce words correctly. He proved to be a fast learner, his diction improving immensely after only a week. It was as if he was born to be a king.

In fact, Umeko was around so much that the servants and other people of Eventide Mountains had begun to refer to her as Princess Umeko, even though she wasn't technically royalty. She didn't mind it, however; it was about time she was called a princess without some sarcasm behind it.

It was also needless to say that the more time Umeko and Coy spent together, the closer they became.

Roxas and Naminé went to go live together at Radiant Garden, where ultimate peace had been restored. The Heartless stopped bothering the place, and of course, there were no more Rhapsodies to go around. Well, there was the occasional Heartless, but the defense system had been strengthened and they would be gone the moment they appeared. The kingdom even started to build itself back around the Radiant Garden Castle under the rule of a new king name King Vice.

This was, of course, simply because he didn't want to go by his original name anymore. It was a new identity for him, a new life in the light. Not that he acted as if he was part of the light most of the time, if he had survived the transition, it must have meant that he belonged in it.

King Vice of Radiant Garden and King Coy of Eventide Mountains often did trade and were on amazing peace terms, even though King Vice could be sometimes a little pushy. Umeko constantly went back to the castle to visit Cora, who was sleeping soundly in the pod under the watchful eye of Naminé and Vice. In fact, she so constantly went to visit there that she eventually bought her own Gummi ship. She was a better flier than Sora, anyway.

"How's she doing?" Umeko asked on one of her weekly visits to see Cora. Her hair looked like it had just been trimmed, and Umeko smiled. Cora didn't like to grow her hair out too long. She certainly wouldn't have wanted to wake up to find it long past her shoulders.

"Better than yesterday," Naminé admitted, "most of her memories are back in order. It's the chains that are going to take a while," she frowned, "but she'll do fine. She's progressing faster than Sora was. But that's probably because you and Riku already forced a lot of her memories upon her in the Realm of Color."

"That's good," was all Umeko brought herself to say as she looked at the figure, slowly bobbing up and down inside of the crysalis-like pod. "So, that Heartless that had been helping you that whole time. That was really Sienna?"

Naminé smiled, "Saw it myself. Sienna was helping the whole time."

"If Anixens could have somehow survived the portal shutting, would she have been able to be a Somebody again with her Heartless?" Umeko asked. Cora would have been able to answer this the second she asked, what with her constant studies, but Naminé simply shook her head slowly.

"No," she admitted, "a Heartless is born out of the _absence_ of a heart, and Nobodies don't have any. They would still need a heart."

"Which Cora could have done for her if the Heartless didn't run away and the Nobody survived." Umeko sighed. "Well, let's not think about what could have been. 'Nothing is predestined; the obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings'," Umeko quoted.

"Who said that?"

"Ralph Blum," Umeko said proudly.

"Do you know who that is?"

"Not a clue." Umeko laughed. "And the king? How's he doing?"

This time, it was Naminé's turn to laugh. "Roxas and I think that he's still in shock that Mickey gave him that job, but he's not doing too badly with royalty. Sometitmes when he gets too much attention he has small outbursts, though," Naminé admitted, putting her fist to her hand and chewing nervously on her knuckle.

"Of course," Umeko giggled.

Kasa and Dolan went back to Eventide Mountains. They were the unfortunate ones that had to break the bad news to Blaise's foster parents; they were just lucky that those people believed half of what they said. Still, after the town being in attack, Kasa and Dolan were looked upon as heroes. They even became relatively close friends afterwards. Axel, who was originally wandering from world to world, finally came to peace at Eventide Mountains. He and Kasa grew closer with the days.

"You come here to think in the _middle of the day_?" Axel asked, confused as Kasa led him to Staccato Park.

Kasa nodded. "Of course. It's really calm here. Except for the seven year locusts." As if on cue, right when she spoke that sentence a lot of annoying little songs began to pipe up out of the locusts by the trees behind them. "How long do you think?" Kasa asked, sitting on the swing that she had sat on before she saw her first Rhapsody. Axel leaned against the pole of the swingset, looking around boredly.

"'Till what?" Axel asked, and became mildly surprised as a bird landed on his shoulder. Maybe he was more scared than anything. He tried not to let the bird catch on fire for Kasa's sake, anyway.

"Until something happens," Kasa began, "until the worlds are going to need saving again."

"I'll give it a year," Axel laughed, "for some reason, the worlds like to be in jeapordy over the summertime." He walked up to Kasa, leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. "In the meantime, I think I know how we can keep ourselves occupied."

Donald and Goofy went back to resume their jobs with the king. It turned out that during Sora and company's trip to the Realm of Color, quite a few Rhapsodies had tried to ambush the place. Luckily for them, they had managed to keep the Restoration Committee's headquarters safe. Except for Merlin, who had been turned into a Rhapsody. They fixed him right up with the antidote, but he was far loopier than normal those days.

Sora, Riku and Kairi returned back to Destiny Islands. By that time, their parents had already been extremely accustomed to their yearly leaves, unless they counted the time that Axel kidnapped Kairi, because their next adventure started shortly after that one. They still had most of the summer left

"Hey, you know what we forgot?" Riku asked as they walked from the shore of the Big Island to as far as their legs would take them. They had been 'just walking' for the better part of two hours, just being teenagers; something they didn't have the chance to do so far.

"No, what?" Sora asked, wrapping his arm around Kairi's waist. Even she seemed relatively curious, though she had been in somewhat of a daze since watching Anixens fall into the darkness. She listened intently, just to hear Riku laugh.

"Xemnas."

They all stopped in their tracks. For a few moments, there was utter silence, before the three of them burst out laughing, so much that their sides began to split and they fell to the grassy field next to the path, the one that they had rested at shortly after they found Donald and Goofy for the first time and saved Destiny Islands.

"I guess our lives wouldn't be exciting without people like him being forgotten," Kairi giggled and leaned into Sora's chest as they looked at the clouds in the sky. "Hey, that one looks like a keyblade."

Sora nodded, "And that one looks like... a Heartless."

"That one looks like one of those Hammerhead Rhapsodies," Riku said.

They all sat up straight and looked at each other, sighing. "For our sake, the worlds better be in jeapordy soon, because we're going to get pretty bored." Riku smiled at the two, and they plucked out handfuls of grass, throwing them at the silverette.

Sora stood up, stretching. "We need to get out more."

**Author's Note: That seemed like a pretty cute place to end it. Thank you to my reviewers and my readers, as I'm sure there were more readers than reviewers... I hope... xD Please review anyway, because if I don't get enough reviews for this, I may not make a sequel. Dx**

* * *

**Fun Facts:**

**The Original Characters**

**Sienna**: Sienna was a character that I made up entirely, except I suppose I got some of her love for cosmetology from my sister. She's not your typical OC, having more of a preppish and self-centered personality than anything. I thought this would be extremely entertaining to work with, partly because I wanted to see Sienna grow. And grow she did; by the end of the last book, she had sacrificed herself to just wound Thomas! No, I don't generally plan these things out. But I think this is the character I've been most proud of so far. Sienna means auburn, or something like it, I believe, and I picked that beause, despite her platinum blonde hair, she's supposed to have one auburn streak right at the frame of her face.

**Anixens**: It pains me to say that this was the best anagram of Sienna's name I could come up with. D: When I created Anixens, I wanted her to be her own different 'person' entirely. She does have a little bit of Sienna in her, that's true, especially when she yells at Xaldin to 'get a haircut'. But as opposed to the outspoken, take-charge person that Sienna had become, I wanted Anixens to be more of a quiet follower, mostly so she wouldn't be too against her own death at the end of the story. I think that maybe some of the wisdom Sienna had gained during her lifetime passed over to Anixens.

**Cora**: Cora is, in fact, the character based off of myself, but only partly. She has my looks and my thirst for knowledge, but I decided to give her sort of a cold-and-distant personality so she would warm up to the group better when the time comes. I chose her name because it means 'heart', not because it rhymes with Sora. xD I tried to hint it a little bit, but in case you couldn't tell, in Cora's time in the darkness with Thomas back in my previous fanfiction, she did have a romantic relationship with him. I think what I liked most about her was switching her from being the main antagonist of the first story to the main _protagonist_ of the second. That was a hard transition to make, but I think it was worth it.

**Umeko**: This one was based off of my best friend, Kari, or Igor Lollipop on fanfiction. No, she's not Asian, but I thought this name was relatively kick-ass. x3 She also has Kari's looks, but not too much of her personality. That's going to shine through in the next sequel, if I ever make one. Her name means something like a plum blossom, and I picked that because in a lot of roleplays we made, her characters names often meant some sort of a flower. And yes, Umeko and Cora's past is tight; just like mine and Igor Lollipop's. We've known each other since first grade, etc. ;D

**Thomas**: This character was very fun to create. He was actually originally based off of a kid I met on a forum. They're supposed to look relatively similar, except I mixed up the hair; the original has yellow and black hair and green eyes. Thomas has red and black hair and green eyes, so you get it. xD He is supposed to be pretty messed up in the head, that much is true, but I wanted him to be sort of a 'diamond in the rough' story, with a little bit of light shining beneath all of that darkness in his heart. I don't even want to begin to explain how fun the scenes with him taunting Cora were to write. He was so... _good_ at it! xD Even though he had to take Cora by force after all that...

**Kasa**: I was thinking about my characters' nationalities one day, and I was like, "Oh my God, they're all either white or Japanese," so I decided to fix that. I've always wanted a Native American character, I think they're so beautiful. So to further accent this character, I made her like a teenage Pocahontas. The truth is, however, I wanted her to have a fiery temper behind her love of nature, which is sort of present, but mostly I was able to make her cool enough to be able to _keep_ her cool, although she has a hard time keeping her cool around Dolan. And I must say, I don't know where AxelxKasa came from, it sort of just happened. xD This character was meant to represent the realm of inbetween.

**Dolan**: Your typical jerk at the beginning, but like Sienna, I thought of him to be a work-in-progress. His problem was that when he worked alone, he sucked, but when he worked with others, he could beat anybody. I think he was fun to write _because_ he was such a jerk, however, but he was able to warm up to Cora and Riku almost immediately, sort of revealing a childlike side of him. His name meant something interesting, what was it... Oh, I think it was something like 'dark', which was obviously extremely fitting. I think, out of his appearance, I like his purple hair, because he's the first character I've ever created with unnaturally colored hair. x3 He was meant to represent the realm of darkness.

**Blaise**: I must have been on crack when I was creating this character or something. I decided, 'Hm, I really don't have a Mary Sue in this story for people to complain about. Let's make a Mary Stu!', and Blaise came along. He's pretty much sweet, sensitive, and 100 light. Like Thomas mentioned during the battle, if there were Princes of Heart, Blaise would be the king. He does, however, care a great deal about the people around him. When people are hurt, he hurts. That's what I liked the most about blaise, how empathetic he was. I think that's the word, empathetic. I know, what an amazing writer I am. xD He was supposed to represent the realm of light, in case you didn't figure that out already. And like I said, his death was totally not planned, and I'm sorry if any of you really liked him. TwT'

**Coy**: I did not originally plan on making him mute, I'll say that right now. Actually, I wanted his personality to be sort of distant and all-business, like Cora's but amped up, until something clicked inside of my head when I was visiting my grandparents that I should make him mute. With that, a whole new personality was born. He became selfless, for the good of mankind, caring and extremely over-expressive. I actually had Coy and Umeko planned out for a long time, and I'm glad it worked out so well. I didn't plan on making him able to speak, and I'm interested in how that would change his personality, but we'd need a sequel for that. For a sequel, we need reviews. ;o

**Random Scenes Explained**

-The scene where Cora and Riku are having sea salt and sky sugar ice cream. I mentioned in an author's note that I did not make sky sugar ice cream up, and I most definitely did not. During the game, when they're asking you for the password, it's either sky sugar ice cream, sea salt ice cream, or liver something ice cream... ick.

-The scene where Cora's 'coke is always gone'. When I was at Igor Lollipop's house a little while back, we were watching Pirates of the Caribbean, and she took a water bottle and put crystal lite in it to color it reddish, like rum. And I came back a week later, and it was still there, so we have an ongoing joke that says, 'Why is the rum not gone?' xD I'll bet it'll still be there the next time I go over there...

-The whistle every time before Sienna's Heartless's appearance. This was also the reason why this fanfiction was originally called The Whistle of a Memory. I actually totally ripped this off of that old movie, The Little Vampire. The vampire tells the boy that whenever he needs him, just whistle. The whistle is always really long, low, and has a really pretty echo to it. So yeah, I totally ripped that off. But I love it. xD

-Beast's Castle when the doors closed on them and Dolan freaked out. Because Dolan is based off of the dark realm, I thought of the dark realm of something scary. I decided to make him think for a while that, like in an old horror movie, he would be stuck in a giant, haunted and abandoned mansion. Obviously, that wasn't the case. They have keyblades. xD

-When Lexaeus was destroyed by the mob of keyblade wielders. I kind of stole this from Simon in Lord of the Flies. Destroyed in a mob. Horrible, I know, but I also didn't quite feel like another fight scene at the time.

Hope you enjoyed that!


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